Nova
by CrypticMoonFang
Summary: Star is a happy-go-lucky party girl with strong tendencies to make mistakes. When she makes the ultimate mistake—bringing with it the consequences that threaten her arranged marriage—Star vows secrecy and returns to Mewni before Marco can find out why. But he has a knack for discovering anything, and allowing the wedding would mean losing Star forever...but sparing Mewni from war.
1. Chapter 1

-Chapter 1-

The house belonged to a young man named Marco Diaz, who lived with his parents while attending his senior year of high school, and was shared with foreign exchange student Star Butterfly. She had very different ways of thinking—much including logic—and a very different culture. She had yet to completely grasp the ways and slang of Earth, but that was to be expected from a princess hailing from another dimension.

Having arrived when they were both fourteen, Marco and Star had grown used to, and over time fond of, each other. This was both a blessing and a curse, because as Star approached her eighteenth birthday, she would have to return to her home dimension in preparations for an arranged marriage. That was the day she would be leaving Marco and Earth forever. It was a day Marco had no clue about, a day she never planned to tell him about. Earth had no magic, so he couldn't follow her. She could easily promise to visit him, but would be unable to do so, and therefore had already decided it was best to never make such a promise.

Because, as she'd learned through many movies, TV shows, and books, Earth's tradition and views on marriage were not that of Mewni's or her parents'. On Earth, it seemed, people married those they loved. They were allowed to choose their mates and get married when they were ready, not on a set date with someone they'd never met.

On the other hand, if she didn't do this, her family would have to disown her according to the traditions and culture of Mewni. Her mother was past her prime and could no longer bear children. Mewni would be thrown into a state of extreme chaos once the king and queen died, and a selection period would arise. Wars would be declared, territories invaded, innocent people caught in the crossfire and murdered in masses. And if she was disowned, she wouldn't be a member of the royal family anymore. She would only be able to stand back, watch, and hope she wouldn't be slaughtered.

So in the long run, it would be for the best. The only problem was what to tell Marco when she suddenly had to leave and he asked if she would come back to visit sometime. On top of that he probably had a party planned for her birthday. Mewni didn't really celebrate birthdays but on Earth, the whole birthday thing was a big deal.

In fact, Earth was so different from Mewni that she didn't really want to go back. Mewni wasn't as appealing to her as it once had been. Every time she compared it to Earth, Earth won by a landslide.

Especially since Marco was on Earth. He was born and raised here and clearly didn't take preference to dimensional travel. He wouldn't be too thrilled to consider coming to Mewni with her once she turned eighteen. That said, she had no plans to try to convince him to. Everything he knew and loved was right here on Earth; who was she to take that from him?

Her farewell to him and his family would be written out as a note, simply explaining that her parents told her to come back and that she had to go without having the time to say a proper goodbye—nothing beyond that. But at least it was a goodbye at all; better than leaving without notice and possibly worrying them.

But thankfully she had about four months left here on Earth. The rest could be dealt with later, when it was time.

 **A/N**

 **There's going to be a little time skip here. The chapters won't be this short, promise. Consider this a prologue. There WILL be an epilogue at the end, and maybe if I'm feeling up to the challenge, a sequel. But for now, just enjoy the story. Um, read, review, all that stuff.**

 **Oh! And Marco is 18, Star is 17 going on 18 (as you can see). I guess I'll just make her birthday in the summer or something, not entirely sure when her real birthday is.**


	2. Chapter 2

-Chapter 2-

One month had passed. Another month had flown by. Star was down to two more months on Earth, then back to the dreaded Mewni. It wasn't exactly her dream trip, being married off to some stranger. Normally she had an upbeat attitude and was very energetic, but the more she thought about leaving the Earth for the reasons she was, the less cheerful she became. Her marriage was of royalty, making it all the more complicated with two different kingdoms joining together. All the duties of a queen would soon enough be hers. As for the in-laws, they would be expecting an heir to their son's throne. An expanding family was something she _could_ give, but didn't want to. Then again it really wasn't up to her. All members of royalty had sole duties to their respective kingdoms. In Mewni, the queen's duty was mainly to provide at least one heir to the throne so that if anything should anything happen to the parents, there would still be someone to carry on the legacy of that kingdom.

She didn't despise the thought of a family so much as the _knowledge_ that she couldn't choose the course of her life. Everyone in Mewni always thought that just because she was a princess, just because she was rich, her life was perfect. How much further from the truth could they get... Although arranged marriages among Mewni's citizens were never required, they were quite common nonetheless. But with her it wasn't even open for discussion.

At least she got to graduate high school. Apparently it was a really big accomplishment on Earth. The next level of schooling was called 'college'. High school had been rough but it was worth it to learn about all the customs of Earth. College would be so much more amazing...if she were still around to attend it anyway...

She sighed as she lazily flipped through TV channels, never settling on just one. She wasn't even interested in watching TV right now. Nobody would be that interested in anything if they were getting married in two months' time. Plus there would be a significant adjustment period. There were so many things she admired about Earth and that would soon be gone. Was it possible to develop homesickness in one's own home? Mewni had been her home until she came to Earth... If she went back to Mewni, did that mean she was going back home? Or, over the course of all these years, had Earth become her home?

Actually, none of that mattered. Either place could be called home but once the wedding was over, she would be shipped off with her new husband—whoever he was—to his castle, as was customary in royal weddings meant to join kingdoms. Maybe if she didn't like him she could just blast him with her wan— No. That would only scream betrayal and cause a war between her kingdom and his.

On the bright side, she had whole new experiences on Earth that she never would've had on Mewni. There were no organized schooling systems on Mewni so high school was, in many ways, mind-blowing. As such, high school parties didn't exist on Mewni—she'd attended her first, among several actually, on Earth. And everything on Earth was completely natural; no magic. As it turned out, everything she used to think was magic was actually the result of electricity and other invisible things like that. They were like air—she couldn't see them but they were there.

For the first time all day, a smile appeared on her face. She still had two months left here, why spend them moping? Besides, there was always Marco to consider. He would be wondering what was wrong if she wasn't constantly smiling...which admittedly she hadn't been doing much of lately.

"Star!" a male's voice called as the front door slammed against the wall.

She sat up in time for Marco to rush over excitedly, proudly flashing an envelope.

"Reporting for duty, Sir Killthedoor," she said sternly as she saluted him.

He jumped onto the couch and beamed. "Guess who just got accepted into ECU?"

She tapped her chin as though thinking hard about it.

"Is he a neat freak?" she 'asked'.

"I make super cheesy—and insanely messy—nachos, okay? I am _not_ a neat freak—just organized."

"Of course. So what's your major?"

He shrugged. "Undeclared. I'm only taking a core curriculum and then I'll transfer credits. They're fully accredited so it won't be a problem, _and_ I can live at home while I go. Great financial choice. So, did you get your letter yet?"

She fiddled with her thumbs, knowing that the honest answer was no and that his follow-up question would be why. How was she supposed to explain why without telling him she was already engaged to a complete stranger and set to be married off when she turned eighteen? Oh, and not forgetting the fact that she would never come back to Earth to see his face again. Mewni marriages were so rude...

"Well, I sort of haven't applied," she admitted.

"What, why? I thought we agreed we would go to the same college together."

"Yeah, we did, it's just..." She sighed. "I don't know if I'm exactly...ready...for college. I haven't decided what I want to do with my life yet and it's kind of expensive... I don't want to waste all that money."

In terms of a career, no, she hadn't figured it out and never bothered to try. She did, however, know what she wanted to do with her life. Going back to Mewni in itself wasn't necessarily the problem, it was leaving Earth forever that was. If she hadn't grown to like this place—and lately she was wishing she hadn't—she would have no problem going back to Mewni and simply accepting the marriage...because once she was married that was it, she could never go back. It was a trap, that was what it was. Divorces didn't exist on Mewni and running away was grounds for imprisonment. There had been many cases where one of the spouses was violent, be it verbally or physically, but her culture very clearly stated that you could _not_ leave your spouse. Cheating, while nearly unheard of, could result in a beheading. If one was widowed, they weren't allowed to remarry. It was a much stricter and crueler system than on Earth. And if her betrothed was abusive in any form, thanks to the culture that had always governed Mewni and the one that was fiercely enforced by the royal family, then she would spend the remainder of her days miserable.

Other royal families that governed other parts—much smaller territories—of Mewni had slightly different marriage systems. The marriages were still nothing short of entrapments, but families such as the Pony Heads chose their suitors in a different manner. First the king would select a number of princes and line them up in front of his eldest daughter—her marrying age depended on their own familial traditions—who would then choose the suitor she found most fit to be wed to. Sometimes she would demand a gift and pick the one who brought her the gift she liked best. Sometimes she would choose an activity they would perform and she would marry the one who outmatched the others. Every selection ritual was determined by the family of the daughter. In her family, her parents selected the prince _they_ thought most fit and she had absolutely no say in it. An eighteenth birthday in the Butterfly family was a dreaded thing, one not meant to be celebrated.

Meanwhile on Earth, an eighteenth birthday was one of the 'big birthdays' in which a teenager became a legal adult. There was no set marrying age on Earth so no one was forced into an arranged marriage. Yet the Diaz's—the wonderful Diaz's—would celebrate her birthday unaware of what it would bring. It was for the best that they didn't know though. Her fourteen years on Mewni had instilled the culture in her very essence and despite the four years spent isolated from that culture on Earth, and introduced to an entirely new one, she couldn't bring herself to _dream_ of going against her family's decision. It was kind of like on Earth—the idea of her being forced to marry someone she didn't know would enrage the Diaz's. Well the idea of no arranged marriages would be appalling to her parents.

"Star." Fingers repeatedly snapped in front of her face which, expectedly, wasn't wearing a smile anymore. "Star."

She blinked a few times and looked beside her to Marco.

"You zoned out again," he said. "Everything okay?"

She silently nodded and tried to crack at least a small grin despite all the stress that was ultimately turning her into a nervous wreck.

"Um, look, these past couple months seem to be really stressing you out. At first I thought it might be stage fright from graduation—you know, all those people staring at you when you go up on stage—but it's been what, a month since graduation? And you still aren't getting any better. Actually it looks like you're getting worse."

The fake grin she had soon twitched up into a nervous one.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" he finished.

"Yeah, I know. Nothing's wrong, I'm fine."

But there was no way he would fall for that, especially since her voice had cracked audibly when she spoke. She knew it had—even she heard it—but there was nothing she could do about it. She didn't have that much time left and her birthday would sneak up on her. Plus, as she was just now realizing, she might actually have _less_ time than she thought. While her birthday was in fact still a few months away, she could be pulled out early for wedding preparations. Measurements for her robes would probably be the main one. For her robes and for a new crown to be fashioned...

There were only a handful of princesses who were _actually_ excited about this. But most weren't. She was sure the princes weren't too happy about it either. They would both be entering a marriage miserable and probably intolerant of each other at first. They would be forced to get used to each other and the other's quirks. Worst of all, as Mewni culture dictated, they would be forced to produce an heir to the throne of their kingdom—that part didn't have to happen immediately but it still had to happen. Earth would consider this sick and unacceptable, that she should be allowed to choose whether or not to have kids and choose who and when she would marry, but she wasn't from Earth, she was from Mewni, and therefore had to follow the customs on which she was raised. It was normal in her home dimension, and although she strongly disagreed with it only due to exposure to Earth's customs, it was normal to her as well.

Marco would be outraged if he knew. Not just Marco, but his parents too. And then what would they think of her? Would they consider her just as much at fault because of her acceptance of Mewni's culture? Would they look at her in disgust? Angry at her for what she was choosing—or rather, not choosing—to do? This was why they couldn't find out. She didn't want their final memories of her to be tainted by the way things worked on Mewni, and how royalty was set up to be this way. She never asked for this and certainly never wanted it, but the Diaz's probably wouldn't see it the way she did.

"Star," Marco said. "You're doing it again. What's going on with you lately?"

She rubbed one of her arms and sighed. "It's nothing."

"It's something and you seem to be really anxious about it," he argued.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

He groaned. "You should at least _consider_ talking to someone. You have to face your problems eventually and someone can always be there to help you do it."

While it was true she would have to face her problems, help couldn't be here this time...

 **A/N**

 **Welp, here's your next chapter. I'm not really sure I have much to say so, onto review replies! Yes, I do review replies, but as of now only to fandoms that have scarce reviews. And on that note, I've checked and all things considered this story has already gotten a lot of reviews, faves, and follows, so thanks so much, you guys!**

 **Also, if the story seems to drag along right now, it won't stay that way. I'm just trying to show how concerned Star is about going back to Mewni. I'm also trying to cram in the ways of Mewni and diplomatic solutions (which will actually be explained a tad more thoroughly later on). Hope this clears up some of why Star is so nervous.**

 **Anyway, review replies (as always, in the order they were reviewed):**

 ** _GolfAlphaMike_ \- Thanks! I think you'll like how it goes. :) I gotz big planz.**

 ** _Hazel Blue Mystery_ \- I hope you'll continue to enjoy it. :D**

 ** _HandmadeVeggies_ \- Well the update wasn't as soon as I'd have liked but considering these weird headaches I've been getting lately, I think it's good enough.**

 ** _Prattle of the Sun_ \- Thank you! And yes, this is my first Tragedy fic. It's slightly outside my comfort zone but I specialize more in Angst, Hurt/Comfort, and Romance, so I think this is doable. I believe ARWP is Angst/Family. Or is it Angst/Hurt/Comfort...? :/ I have no idea... **

**_acosta perez jose ramiro_ \- Thank you! And I'll try. ;)**

 ** _jordynrojers618_ \- Thanks! And I hope I can continue the entertainment. ARWP I hope to update soon or soon-ish, but no guarantees can ever be made on that story... It's not the easiest thing in the world to write; takes a lot of time, effort, and thought. **

**_Gliss Phantom_ \- A PHAN! :'D Glad you like this. ^.^ Well I've been having pretty bad headaches and you know how you just can't focus well when you have a headache? Yeah, that's me all the way. If not for the headaches I'd have been able to update sooner.**

 ** _bleventeen_ \- Yay! :D I did! second chappie up!**

 ** _Plugging Up_ \- Awww thank you. ^.^ I strive for perfect grammar, even keeping in mind the exceptions to the rules. ;) **

**_Flimsy_ \- Thanks! ^.^ Updated. **


	3. Chapter 3

-Chapter 3-

Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into another month. She had approximately—and assuming she was lucky—one month left on Earth. The rate at which time was hurtling by was scary. Every day brought her closer to that blasted marriage and hour by hour, minute by minute, she was being driven insane with a growing mix of stress, anxiety, fear, dread, anticipation, worry...and a different emotion she couldn't admit to herself. An Earthling and a Mewnian together smacked both worlds in the face.

"Posture!" she scolded herself as she practiced in the mirror.

Standing up straight, she did look graceful...to an extent.

"Head up..." she mumbled.

She lifted her head. Whether she was truly talking to herself or a pathetically lonely room was uncertain even to her.

"Down a little," she said as she tilted her head just a hair earthward.

She had to be ladylike. Princess-like. She had to have royal dignity. An air of importance. She had to stand graceful and proud. Mask the confusion. Silence the conscience. Calm the fear. Tame the sea. But never— _never_ —move the mountain. The mountain was the mask, the silence, the calm, and stood strong against the angry waters that dared to brush against its base. A valley would become a moat. A trap.

Then she would be her mother's equivalent. She would finally be fit to wed.

"Star, honey, dinnertime!" Mrs. Diaz yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

"Of course, Mo— I mean, _Mother_ ," she quickly corrected, all the time muttering under her breath in secret practice.

"Please excuse me." She curtseyed to the mirror and turned around to head downstairs.

She had been privately training herself in royal behavior. This way she could come back and show her parents that she had been listening to their lectures instead of spacing out on them—which she had but if they knew that...

She took a breath as she entered the dining room, this time as herself instead of a person of higher political ranking. She slouched during dinner, smiled, and laughed at a few points. She barely ate though. She nibbled on a piece of chicken before setting it down and pushing the plate away from her just slightly. Nevertheless, it didn't go unnoticed by the Diaz's like she hoped it would. Breakfast was dead to her now and lunch was a stranger. She scarcely ate dinner and more often than not refused it. Then, when she did eat, an eventual subject would be brought up either at the table or in her own mind that would make her so nervous she would become nauseous. On occasion, she threw up from it.

And a select few words were more than enough to cause a miniature panic attack when she heard them. Mrs. Diaz in particular seemed to use them far too often for her comfort. She had a feeling that the woman was doing this intentionally. For what reasons, she didn't know...

And then, naturally, she heard one of the words, this time in a peculiar sentence that she'd never heard come from any of the Diaz's before—nothing even similar. Then again, she hadn't been keeping up with the conversation so it was taken completely out of context.

"Marco, you need to marry a girl like Star," Mrs. Diaz laughed.

"MOM!" he seemed to chastise.

Marry. Marco. Someone she knew. Someone who made her smile. Someone she wasn't _allowed_ to marry.

She paled at the mention of the word and her grip on the cup she'd been holding to her lips weakened significantly. It slipped. The sound of shattering glass was the only thing that broke her out of a trance.

She rushed to grab some paper towels and clean up her spilled drink, along with sweeping up the shards of broken glass.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "It just slipped."

She didn't mean for it to happen, but her voice was shaky and her breathing was rather erratic. Even her heartbeat seemed—and probably was—irregular.

She felt two arms hook under hers and pull her to her feet.

"Um...Star, I got this," Marco's voice said. "I think you should try burning incense or something—whatever will get you to relax."

He gently nudged her towards the living room and she complied without a single word.

She sat down on the couch and tried to even out her breathing, but couldn't resist looking back to the dining room. Marco was busy cleaning up her mess and his parents were just turning their heads away pretending to never have been looking at her, belatedly hiding their worried expressions.

She dropped her head into her hands and ran her fingers through her hair. Once she was gone they would have one less person to worry about. Although right now she didn't feel like a person so much as an item about to be pawned off. Pawned off to who though...? Some random person she'd never met, of course, but who would her groom be? The man she would be married to, bound to forever... Once that ring went on, the ceremonial dance would begin. And when that dance was over, when that final move was made, she would gain a kingdom and a husband. But was it truly 'gain'? In a way, she supposed. She was Mewni's answer to a diplomacy problem. Her marriage would bring together two entire kingdoms—surely this was reason enough to celebrate. Yet here she was, dreary and ready to break down in the middle of the Diaz's living room. If it was supposed to be for the best, why did she feel as if she was losing it all?

"You should be happy," a voice said behind her.

She whipped her head to the side just in time to find Mrs. Diaz sitting down beside her. The boys had gone—where she didn't know; she hadn't paid much attention to them.

She gave the woman a confused look.

Taking a breath, it was explained. "You've been here on Earth for some time. We've grown to know you. You've been yourself for so long now that it's easy to forget you're a princess. I bet every penny I own that all this has something to do with that."

"It's nothing, Mrs. Diaz. It was just a little embarrassing when you said Marco should marry me. Caught me off guard."

"You weren't keeping up with our conversation, were you? I was saying that Marco needed to marry a girl _like_ you because he was too organized and single-minded. He needs an essence like yours around to brighten his days and make his life more fun."

She opened her mouth to speak but was abruptly cut off.

"Now, Star, what's all this negative energy about? You never had anything like this before. You were so full of life and cheer. Where did that go?"

"I have to go back to Mewni soon," she confessed. "I guess it all went there without me."

Mrs. Diaz chuckled lightheartedly. "You once took us to Mewni. Such an exciting place to live. Beautiful, really. And your castle? There must be breathtaking views."

"Earth has breathtaking views. The plants are so colorful, especially in the springtime. Humans are so wonderful, even the ones that lack...respect. Everything here is just so free and incredible and I never want to leave."

"Oh, now, you're the princess. Freedom—"

"Doesn't exist on Mewni," she finished for her. "Not even for a princess—not even for me."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm never going to come back to Earth after I leave."

"Why not? I thought you liked Earth."

"I love Earth so much but I can't come back. There's _no freedom_."

But if there was such thing as a loophole, where she could just cancel the marriage and run back to Earth, where she could stay forever and marry whoever she wished—whoever _she_ wished—then she would've found it by now.

"You know, you may think you've seen all of Earth but actually, this is just a country—a kingdom, if you will, that lacks a king. Other parts of the world have different cultures where, like you said, freedom doesn't exist. Those parts of the world govern themselves by this culture." As did Mewni despite the royal family... "Women there are sold off like cattle. Some marriages are polygamous, meaning one man has multiple wives. Some are forced, especially with royalty. I don't suppose _Mewni_ has such a strict marriage system?"

The woman gave her a look only a mother could give—one that very clearly said she already had an idea and was waiting for further confirmation.

"Why do you keep using that word?" she muttered.

"Because even if I'm not _your_ mom, I'm _a_ mom; and mothers know everything. I started noticing your behavior changing whenever someone talked about marriage or love. You get edgier when you heard those words. Is there any particular reason behind that?"

She quickly shook her head. "Must be a coincidence."

"Star, please. It isn't very hard to see what's going on. You're a princess, you're extremely nervous, you're from a different dimension _with a different culture_ , you hate talking about marriage, you threw Marco's boom box out of the window the other day because they wouldn't stop playing love songs on the radio, and you don't want to go back home. I noticed immediately that Mewni was different from Earth when you took us there. Add all that up and you get a pretty clear idea. Of course, the boys haven't figured it out, but they aren't moms either."

Mrs. Diaz tenderly put an arm around her and pulled her closer.

Now that all the cold, hard evidence had been laid out in front of her, it was a dead giveaway to her reasons for being so against returning to her home dimension. She didn't want to and that was fact. She had to and that was fact. If not then...well...then the obvious could and would happen.

"It's a diplomatic solution," she finally said. "Mewni's been on the brink of war for ages with a kingdom just as big as mine. I tried to ignore it for as long as I could but about a year after coming to Earth, my parents told me I would marry the eldest prince of Thagerie. On my eighteenth birthday I'll go back to Mewni and join the two kingdoms. There won't be a war. No one will die."

"I would imagine you would be proud to do this then. What's holding you back?"

"I don't know who I'm marrying. He could be very violent for all I know."

"In that case the marriage could be called off."

She shook her head as tears became heavy in her eyes. "This marriage is vital to the safety of Mewni's citizens. If I try to get out of it, I'll be imprisoned. Or maybe worse, since this would count as betrayal to the king. On top of all that, it could be the trigger Thagerie's been waiting for—they've been trying to find even the smallest excuse to declare war on Mewni. We've been sending ambassadors to discuss treaty options but the only one they'll accept is the joining of the two kingdoms, and that can only happen intimately within the royal families."

"I see... And is there something—or some _one_ —else holding you back?" Mrs. Diaz asked suggestively.

"It really doesn't matter at this point," she sighed.

And although it may have sounded rude, she spoke the truth. She was the only one capable of doing this. Thagerie had been waiting so long for one _tiny_ reason to break the ceasefire and attack Mewni. Going against such a contract would result in the mother of all massacres. By following through with such a contract, Mewni would gain additional funds from Thagerie's treasury, which at the time of marriage would immediately become a shared treasury. Once combined with Mewni, both kingdoms would prosper. Thagerie would have the agricultural lands of Mewni and Mewni would have the military support of Thagerie. The impasse would be over and everything would work out...

"I can't say I know as much as you about royal matters and wars and diplomacy and whatnot, but if you must marry someone, make sure he can hold onto you—even if he's not a prince." Mrs. Diaz stood up and smirked. "Between you and me, my husband and I both agree you'd make a very fine daughter-in-law." A sly wink. "But maybe I'm just babbling."

A soft blush began to bridge her nose, extending quite nicely to both cheeks.

"D-Don't tell anyone about this whole arranged marriage," she said as Mrs. Diaz walked out of the living room giving her a thumbs-up.

At least she was safe from anyone else finding out but...now she had to deal with herself and the guilt she would feel upon leaving Earth in the near future. The guilt...and being married to someone she didn't love. Maybe Earth's culture—or at least this 'country's' culture—had gotten the best of her emotions and it was in conflict with Mewni's culture. Maybe her emotions were clouding her logic. She should _want_ this to happen, for the good of her people if nothing else.

Yet for some reason, she didn't...

 **A/N**

 **This should properly explain more about the arranged marriage...hopefully. And I hope you like such a quick update! That's pretty rare for me! :D**

 **I don't really have anything else to say... That's new... I'm also tired so I'll just get on to the review replies and be our of your hair. Again, um, read, review, blah blah blah, stuff you don't care about.**

 **Review replies:**

 ** _Rainbowlaserparty_ \- First off, AWESOME name! Secondly, I'm glad you like it. Hope I can continue to entertain you. ^.^**

 ** _lolsayzme_ \- Don't worry, this is a Starco fic. ;D Starco action is coming, just, you know, not yet.**

 ** _PlasticPencils_ \- I did!**

 ** _bleventeen_ \- Thanks! And done and done! ^.^**

 ** _jappleseed2468_ \- Well yeah, she's getting married off even though she loves Marco.**

 ** _Prattle of the Sun_ \- ...Maybe I will make this another ARWP situation... O-O Maybe I will...and maybe that's why it'll be Tragedy...**

 ** _GravityFallsMabel_ \- X'D That's a new way to kill Josh. Everyone else went for knives and guns, you went for sharks. I admire that! **

**_Plugging Up_ \- Yeah, I'm so tired of seeing everyone else write Mewni's culture as being the exact same as on Earth, but I don't think that's true at all. And I'm glad I got her emotions down. :) That's a big part of every story!**

 ** _Sambamastah_ \- Actually...there is a little something more going on... ;) But no spoilers.**

 ** _CornerstoneKey_ \- Awwww, thank you. That was quite an analytical review there. To answer one of your apparently many questions, yes, something deeper is going on with her. Buuuuttttttt I can't tell you what it is, sorry.**

 ** _JDaddyExplosion_ \- Thanks, and done!**

 ** _Omega Ultra_ \- Why thank you! I've been really busy lately but I've also managed to scrape some writing time in. **

**_Gliss Phantom_ \- Thanks so much! :D Mewni's culture does go a bit deeper though, but for now this is the extent of what you need to know. I will!**

 ** _TripleAAA1183_ \- I was actually factoring said "squalid conditions" into this chapter here, when I spoke of Thagerie's funds and militia. **

**_Soos Ramirez_ \- Oh don't worry, this fandom won't stay small for long. Already it's climbing the fanfiction ladder!**


	4. Chapter 4

-Chapter 4-

Her toe delicately touched the ground and she stood in that position, taking a deep breath as she prepared to re-practice her dance. It was harder than she thought with no partner but for now, it was the best she could do, despite being unable to complete half the dance. She wasn't too willing to bring up the subject of her marriage to anyone, not even Mrs. Diaz.

She looked up at a full moon. Without all the city lights on, there were thousands of stars smiling up in the sky. She didn't try to pick out any specific constellations. Instead she chose to let them be without formation or order—free to be what they wanted. And they were amazing that way. They didn't have to be the Big Dipper or Orion's Belt, they were just...stars. They were just there, nothing was forcing them to be in any one group. And as they stood alone, they shone brighter and better.

It reminded her of why she would never bring herself to have one _hint_ of dislike for Earth. This was one of those moments when time should stand still and let the beauty of the heavens mesmerize everyone who happened to lay eyes upon such a sight.

Suddenly the peace was disrupted by a short _click_ behind her.

She turned around and there was Marco, standing calmly in front of the door with a mysterious smile on his face. Her immediate reaction was to simply freeze up—his mother had given her a thumbs-up but hadn't actually _agreed_ to keep anything a secret. For all she knew, Marco had every piece of information his mother did. If that was the case then he was _not_ as calm as he appeared to be. She imagined he would be seething with anger. Maybe he'd found out all the secrets she had been keeping from him for a long time now. All those secrets...

As he began walking towards her, he looked up at the same stars she had just been looking at, hanging around the same moon in the same positions, and shining the same beautiful way. But he was getting so close...and wasn't even bothering to look her in the eye... She didn't want him to look her in the eye. He wasn't even saying anything; he was just looking away but still coming closer.

She took about two steps back and hung her head, turning her gaze from Marco to the ground beneath her. It wasn't to be rude, it was just...she didn't want to see the rage in his eyes, or any judgmental stare he might have. If she saw that coming from him, of all people—or come to think of it, any of the Diaz's—she wouldn't be able to handle it. Legally the Diaz's had custody of her so they could just as easily disown her. It could—and did—happen on Mewni; and while Earth's culture was so different, Mrs. Diaz had clearly said this was just one part of Earth, and that other parts had cultures similar to that of Mewni. Maybe those cultures had integrated slightly... How could she explain having to go back to Mewni early to her parents?

In her peripheral vision, she saw a hand stretch out to her. On Mewni it wasn't uncommon to receive a slap to the face as punishment for something—in fact that was the main way to punish a child. She briefly thought that was what it was, but just as quickly remembered that on Earth, slapping someone was considered wrong and completely uncalled for no matter what the circumstances were. Marco had no knowledge of Mewni culture, so of course he would never strike her. But that only brought up the question of why he wanted her to take his hand.

Daring to look up, there was no hint of negativity on his face. His expression was soft and caring, not at all what she was expecting it to be. She wasn't about to complain about it even though it was something she hadn't been prepared for.

She took his hand and immediately he did something else she hadn't prepared herself for—he made his intentions very clear by pulling her closer and twirling her. Either he was being completely whimsical and just felt like dancing, or he had happened to see her practicing the wedding dance and assumed she wanted to dance. Normally these dances were done in formal clothing but somehow his casual hoodie seemed so much more appealing.

He didn't know about the wedding dance, so she decided to let him lead and go along with an Earth dance. Besides...she would miss these dances. She would miss everything about Earth.

He gently held her hand as she slid by him to the point where she barely touched his fingertips. She twirled closer to him again and let him hold her waist while he swayed his body back and forth, moving her with him.

That was when she realized what Mrs. Diaz had been suggesting when she asked if some _one_ was holding her back from accepting the marriage. This whole time she hadn't been willing to admit any of it to herself, let alone someone else, but the longer Marco held her so close to him, the clearer it became—the real reason she didn't want to leave wasn't because she loved Earth, it was because Marco was here.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and followed every step he made, matching her footsteps with his.

Even though Marco was here, it didn't change much. She still had to get married to someone else...but if she had to anyway, why couldn't it be him? Not that she liked him _that_ much, just...someone she knew and trusted. She knew him. She trusted him. He'd helped her through so many situations and so many tough times...

This was when she was supposed to twirl once more, but this time he stopped her and kept her close, not allowing her to twirl away from him. Instead he wrapped one arm around her shoulders and kept the other one wrapped around her waist. He leaned her over to the side and, if not for him holding her the way he was, she would've fallen. She tightened her own hold around his neck on instinct.

He slowly began to lower his head towards hers and she recognized what he was intending to do. Her heartbeat rose and a blush spread across her cheeks. He, on the other hand, didn't have the slightest hint of red on his face. It gave her the impression that he'd been meaning to do this for a long time, but was either just now working up the courage or had been waiting for the right atmosphere. With a night like this, and with her having already been outside admiring it, he finally did have the perfect atmosphere. And she could feel it all sinking in, like she was absorbing some unknown energy.

Once he had reached a certain point, she lifted her head and her lips slowly met his. She hadn't given much thought into what her first kiss might be like, but feeling his lips on hers stirred something inside her. His kiss was so tender and loving. It made her heart flutter and gave her, as they said on Earth, "butterflies in her stomach". Even now she didn't want to admit it, but she did nevertheless—she _wanted_ this. Even though she was going to be married in a mere month, she wanted _him_. Nobody else would suffice.

And despite knowing this one kiss would end up hurting both of them, she couldn't bring herself to break it. If it was going to be broken, he would have to do it. Forget about the stars and moon—this was the moment time would do well to stand still in. She'd gotten a taste of ecstasy; now she wanted more, and she wanted it to last as long as possible. But it would end soon enough and when it did, her conscience would be breathing down her neck about it.

And naturally, right after thinking that, Marco parted and that no-longer-mysterious smile returned.

Immediately she knew she'd made a huge mistake. This kiss alone was exhilarating...intoxicating almost... No. She shouldn't have allowed it to happen. She was already promised to someone else, someone who was _not_ him. Not Marco... And this wouldn't just kill her, it would kill him too. She was never going to come back. What would he think then?

But...then again...it was an arranged marriage...done without her consent. She was in love with one person but betrothed to another. And then Marco pulled a fast one like this. Maybe it was his smile that captured her. Maybe it was his eyes. Or—going out on a limb—maybe she had loved him all this time and refused to admit it due to being forced into a marriage. That seemed pretty reasonable right about now.

Marco placed his forehead against hers, which somehow had a comforting effect on her. The kiss had already happened, the damage done. So why spend this next month running from him when she could very easily spend it with him?

"I've wanted to do that for a long time," he whispered breathily.

She smiled and this time, it was real. She was smiling out of _happiness_...not a mask to cover her lies, not something to simply pretend she was fine when she wasn't.

She inhaled just before he tried for another kiss—and succeeded. It was no less thrilling than the first.

This time tears flooded her eyes and for the first time, she cried about her arranged marriage in front of him. While she relished in the moment, she knew it was something she would be giving up. Being with him would only hurt her and she knew it but...maybe he was worth the pain. Maybe that was why she was allowing herself to be with someone she knew she couldn't.

But a part of her still felt uneasy about this. Her parents wouldn't approve. Mewni wouldn't approve. It felt like she was going against her culture. Yet, at the same time, she knew she wasn't—not yet. She was still unmarried and was free to choose who she could be with until her departure. She chose Marco. At the end of the day it would still be considered wrong to do this to him _and herself_ , but it felt so right. That phrase had been so overused but it was true. They did seem to fit perfectly together.

But if they were so perfect then why had fate turned her the other way?

 **A/N**

 **YES~! First Starco moment! So. What did you think? I can't do dance scenes very well so I hope this was at least okay-ish, maybe like a 5 out of 10. Oh well. I tried my best. Thought that counts, right?**

 **Oh, and I'm thinking of changing this from Romance/Tragedy to Romance/Hurt/Comfort. Do you think I should do that?**

 **Well, uh, I didn't expect this story to get as much attention as it is. In fact I'm not so sure I expected it to get any attention. ^.^ But, I did promise review replies, so here you are:**

 ** _Rainbowlaserparty_ \- You're welcome! Awww and thank you. :D I'll try my best!**

 ** _Bigmike33321_ \- I got a few surprises up my sleeve. ;) **

**_arael205. ar_ \- OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH! :'D That means the world to me! And sorry about the space in your name, but if I didn't space it fanfiction would think it's a website.**

 ** _Guest_ \- I hope I can continue to make it amazing. And I'm sorry to say, but I've seen Randy Cunningham before and I'm more into Naruto-style ninjas. But everyone likes different things; I respect that.**

 ** _Prattle of the Sun_ \- :3 Maybe I won't...BUT MAYBE I WILL.**

 ** _PlasticPencils_ \- Of course not! Star's getting married, she's gotta say something to her. lol**

 ** _slammingfigure8_ \- Really? I was afraid I might've made her a tad OOC.**

 ** _JDaddyExplosion_ \- I could see it aligning that way too. I mean I'm really tired of seeing everyone else writing it out as though Mewni is Earth when it's clearly not. And from what we've seen so far, it's very different.**

 ** _DoomParchment_ \- I love that word! :D**

 ** _DaringTheIscolete_ \- lol No not this one.**


	5. Chapter 5

-Chapter 5-

She held up her dimensional scissors and snipped a neat line in front of her, tearing open a blue portal as she did so. She looked with determination at the swirling center of the portal, then jumped through.

It was like opening a door, really—instead of going through some long tunnel like Earth TV shows depicted, you just stepped from one dimension into another. It was a lot simpler than what most of Earth seemed to think.

She took a glance at the scissors and before the portal could close behind her, she made a final decision and forced herself to throw them back through the portal—a sign to herself that she was officially done with Earth...and it hurt beyond words.

* * *

She gasped as she woke, shooting upright and looking around to make sure she wasn't on Mewni just yet. Her dimensional scissors rested on her desk, very clearly unused. She was still on Earth, still in the Diaz's house, and most importantly, _not_ on Mewni. Time was ticking though, and it was eating away at her. Her dream would become reality soon...but right now, her dream was just that.

She sighed and flopped back down on her bed, lazily slinging an arm over her eyes.

She immediately regretted her actions when Marco's face—with the mysterious smile that had adorned it not long ago—appeared on her eyelids. She flung her arm all the way over the side of the bed and opened her eyes, this time wondering if it was okay to so much as blink.

Why he was haunting her, she didn't know. She had to leave him behind anyway, she shouldn't have even cared for that kiss. But, life happened, and she did care _very_ deeply for it. Love was...well, a rather strong word. She dared not even venture into such uncharted territories. She liked him far beyond friends...but that was it, at least for now.

No _WAIT!_ She could _not_ allow this to get any more serious. She _would not_ allow this to get any more serious. There was no "for now". If she got that much more romantically attached to him, she wouldn't be able to leave Earth. She was due to be married—she _had_ to be married. It was...it was for the good of her people. She had to keep that in mind; Mewni and this marriage came before Earth and Marco. As much as it put a damper on her spirits, that was reality at its finest. Heh. No. That was emotional _torture_ at its finest.

A lone tear slid hopelessly down her cheek. To lov- To _like_ another even after she was married would be horrible... And she would just be leaving without a real goodbye to Marco and his family. No last hugs or...in Marco's case, kisses. Earth had books about everything, why couldn't it have a book about stopping romance? But then that wouldn't be fair to Marco. NO! MARCO DIDN'T MAT-

...She couldn't bring herself to finish that last thought because to her at least, he _did_ matter. If she was suffering because of what was to come—because of what she would be leaving behind—then he mattered far beyond her own understanding. But _why? Why_ did he have to matter so much to her? Why did she have to like _anyone_ on Earth, let alone him? This was all stupi-

...Again she couldn't finish the thought. That was like saying Marco was stupid and...he wasn't. He was sweet, caring, intelligent, and she couldn't get that smile out of her head to save her life. And unfortunately every image of that smile came with the image of that kiss, of her lips pressed against his and the both of them enjoying every second of it. Every time she thought back to that kiss—well, two kisses actually—she wanted to relive that moment. The fear, the confusion, the dance, the feeling of her heart about to jump out of her chest, and finally him displaying such devotion to her through a kiss. The only thing that really killed the mood of those thoughts was the "devotion" part. What would become of him after she left? Would he think he wasn't good enough for her? Because he was in just about every way possible. Still...would he know that?

If things were different on Mewni she would probably choose him to be her partner. She would be happy that way. They could get married. They could start a family together. On Earth she would be considered too young to start a family, but on Mewni she was _expected_ to bear a child as soon as she could. In other words, she and her new husband would be expected to...to begin trying for a baby...almost immediately after marriage. It wasn't so much a matter of conceiving that was the problem, it was keeping the baby alive. Mewnian babies were very weak in the womb and the first few months after birth. She could easily go through ten miscarriages or stillborns before finally birthing a baby strong enough to survive the next few months. After that the baby would grow up healthy, like her.

Any other thought she had after that was broken by the muffled sound of something rustling downstairs. Her first thought was that Ludo had somehow slipped past anyone's detection and crept into the house. It had been some time since his last attempt to steal her wand... On the other hand it could be one of the Diaz's. They did live here after all, and from time to time one of them got up to get a midnight snack—COUGH Mr. Diaz—but just in case it was Ludo, she decided it was best to check things out for herself.

She grabbed her wand and yawned as she slowly made her way downstairs. The further she got, the less it sounded like little monster feet. It also didn't sound like COUGH Mr. Diaz either though.

She did see the fridge light on, which in her eyes was enough to confirm her suspicions that either someone was up getting something to eat or Ludo was just hungry and whimsically decided to try human food. Seriously though...the last thing she needed to be even _thinking_ about was Ludo and his minions. Life was getting hard enough as it was.

Shockingly, as she reached the kitchen, Mr. Diaz was nowhere in sight. His presence had been replaced by...Marco. Of all people, it had to be Marco... She was already too restless to sleep, he'd been on her mind way too much since he kissed her, and to top it all off they had the whole house to themselves...in the middle of the night...alone...just the two of them.

And apparently he heard her footsteps. He closed the refrigerator door with a small soda can in hand and looked at her. His expression was blank, like he wasn't really thinking anything in particular. Even upon seeing her his expression didn't change. The smile he once wore was gone, and part of her was grateful for that because it would just lead her to think back to the kiss they shared—yes, _shared_ , because although she had initially been caught by surprise, _twice_ she had returned his kiss. That alone could've led him to believe she had the same feelings for him as the ones he very clearly had for her. And...she wasn't entirely sure she _did_ have those feelings. Not to say that it wasn't an experience she enjoyed and wanted, but it was one she shouldn't have allowed. She had every chance in the world to stop him but instead made it worse. She only contributed to something very wrong. Now Marco would suffer because of it...

To her, tension hung in the air, but judging from his still-void expression, there was absolutely no tension to him. After what had happened, she figured even he would be a _little_ bit nervous.

"Star," he said, almost as though he hadn't been expecting her to hear all the noise he'd been making not moments ago.

"Marco," she replied, attempting a similar tone.

"I didn't know you were up."

Normally if someone was trying to start a conversation it was a bit of an icebreaker, but since he didn't feel the same atmosphere she was feeling, it really did nothing to help.

"Yeah, I...I heard someone downstairs and thought I'd check it out."

"Sorry. I couldn't sleep and got thirsty. But, since you're up, there's sort of something I've been meaning to talk to you about..."

She resisted the urge to bite her lip and nodded instead.

He moved over to the couch in the living room and motioned for her to follow, which she did despite how irrationally nervous she felt. They'd already kissed—twice—and that was a pretty intimate thing, even on Earth! And Earth took some things that were meant to be intimate rather lightly, like it was just nothing... On Mewni a kiss was bold and symbolized passion for one another to extremes. It didn't necessarily have to mean love, but it usually did and as such was usually reserved for someone very special. On Earth, pretty much every unmarried couple and sometimes even friends kissed at least once and then broke up the next week. It was a matter she'd had a hard time understanding—and admittedly she still didn't understand why Earth treated such things as kisses and even sex so loosely—when she first came here.

Once she had sat down beside him—not realizing how much distance she'd put between them—he cleared his throat and scooted closer to her. It only served to make her more nervous because now he could so close he could touch her...

"So, Star, about earlier... I, um, I-I... Well how do you feel about...what happened?" he asked, for some reason avoiding the word 'kiss' despite _him_ having initiated it in the first place.

She took a deep breath. "Honestly, I'm not sure what to think... It was unexpected."

He frowned. "Was it...nice...?"

At this point both of them were looking at the ground and refused to make eye contact. At least this way she felt more comfortable being near him.

"I-I guess so. I've never kissed anyone before so, that was kind of my first time." Well, she hadn't _consciously_ kissed anyone before.

"Did you maybe ever consider me as...well...um, your type?"

"My type of what?"

"You know, a boyfriend? Romance and all that? More than just a friend? The kind of guy you might one day maybe want to date...?"

"Oh. That type," she mumbled—which had really been what they were doing the whole time. It seemed like Marco was finally starting to feel nervous too. "I ummmm..."

He stopped her. "Look, I completely understand if you don't think of me that way. I get that you might've gotten caught up in the moment. It's just, I've been in the friend zone for so long and wanted to get out. But now I'm starting to second guess the way I tried... I just don't want this to ruin our friendship, it means everything to me."

She felt him looking at her this time, pleading with her to give him not a yes or no, but her honest answer. The simple fact that he wanted her honesty, her comfort, her happiness, even at the expense of his own desires, did not help suppress any feelings she may or may not have had for him. At very least he wanted her friendship and...right now even that wasn't a good idea. But she had a choice and it wasn't like she had all the time in the world to decide. She was either with him or she wasn't—it was simple but also difficult. On one hand, what did he do to _not_ deserve a chance? On the other hand, _she was engaged and would be married in a month_. It seemed like an obvious choice but she only had a month left here. She had just one month left to have a chance to _ever_ be with him. Why pass it up? She wouldn't have this opportunity again anyway...

Marco put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay if you don't want—"

But she absolutely refused to let him finish that sentence, to let him say that he might not be good enough for her or even to let him _think_ that.

She grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him to her lips, forming a highly effective muzzle. These kisses would be the last they ever shared...

 **A/N**

 **Well everyone, thanks to an AWESOME virus on my computer that gradually gets worse as the days move on, a couple of things you should know:**

 **-I can no longer do review replies because it won't open both the reviews tab and the documents tab at the same time.**

 **-It takes FOREVER to load any PMs you send so I only rarely check those.**

 **-I am still able to read every single review you write.**

 **-I still love you all!**

 **-I really hope this chapter was...satisfactory, at the very least. I feel like I may have made Marco a little TOO bold last chapter, like he just expected Star to be hid girlfriend right then and there without giving any thought into what he was doing. So I tried to make up for it in this chapter. I also wanted to show Star's growing concern with these sudden complications threatening to mess up her plan.**

 **-If this chapter sucked, please tell me!**


	6. Chapter 6

-Chapter 6-

Their relationship was still young, but definitely blossoming into…well…into what she assumed was love. Yet all the while she'd kept a very open mind about all this. She wanted to lower her expectations, she wanted to tell herself not to get too attached or comfortable because if she did, the parting would only hurt worse… But, as fate would have it, she already found herself craving more of him all the time—his kisses, his cuddles, the sweet nothings he would whisper in her ear sometimes… She couldn't get enough of that. He wanted her for her… Not for his bloodline. Not to be used as an item to keep the Diaz legacy alive. She was worth something more to him and she knew it.

But it just gave her all the more reason to wish she'd never met him. To wish she'd never even _heard_ of Earth before. The pain of leaving wouldn't even exist.

…On the other hand…she would never have met Marco… She would never have seen Earth…

It was both conflicting and frustrating. She could go one way or the other but she couldn't go both ways. She had to wish for one thing and that was final. Not that it even counted for anything… She would…be leaving… Very soon no less…

The TV flickered as it transitioned from one commercial to the next. She had learned early on that commercials were just lies and scams specifically meant to interrupt a show right at all the best moments. Earth did have a few downsides… Still, she would even miss commercials. Maybe.

"These things are so annoying," Marco grumbled. "It's like they go on and on."

"Mmhm. On purpose, to annoy you," she replied.

"That is exactly what commercials are for, Star. Nothing. But. Irritation."

Marco's parents walked through the living room and outside, his mother sitting in a chair to read a magazine and his father throwing a couple of hamburger patties onto the grill.

Once the door was shut and his parents' backs were turned, Marco put one arm around Star and pulled her closer, against his chest, then kissed the top of her head. She smiled in response.

Their relationship was still early and growing, but it had remained a secret ever since it started, like an unspoken rule between the two of them. Mr. Diaz had explicitly stated that his son was not to do anything that would upset her own parents. Neither of them knew for sure, but this could include anything beyond friendship— _clean_ friendship. So in front of Mr. and Mrs. Diaz—just in case she might tell her husband about it—they acted as thought nothing ever happened, as though they were completely innocent just as they had been before. In a way this forbidden lov— _relationship_ was thrilling.

"Star?" Marco said.

She looked up at him.

"M-Maybe it's a little early to say this but I…" His voice paused for a moment and the look on his face showed uncertainty. "Never mind. I-It's nothing."

"Marco…" she pressed, moving forward to rest her head on his shoulder and attempting a puppy dog face.

She was being sly, and she knew it too. A long time ago she had asked him, just out of curiosity, what he found most attractive in a girl. Originally she had been asking more along the lines of personality, and she probably should've clarified that, but he began describing appearance instead. And one thing she took immediate notice of was that he was eyeing her head to toe as he described blue eyes, long blonde hair, a full figure…ultimately using her as his "most attractive" example. Of course he did throw in that the hearts on her cheeks were cute too. She'd remembered every word since then, and quickly discovered afterwards how to take advantage of her looks and win over his favor to get what she wanted.

"I um…" And then he looked into her eyes. "I…I really…I really love you, Star…"

Without a second's hesitation she replied, "I love you too."

But she _didn't_ love him, she _couldn't_ love him, so what was she even _saying?!_

He smiled and let out a sigh of relief. "And…instead of just dating…"—they had been going out on secret dates under the cover of two friends spending time with one another—"…I sort of want to take it a step further, and so I gue— I think, what I'm saying is that, I-I want you to um…to be my girlfriend?"

Again there was no hesitation on her answer. "Yeah, I will."

No, no, no, shut up, _shut up!_ This was crazy, insane even! She was _engaged_ , she couldn't be doing this! This was wrong, dating was supposed to be the limit and she went past the limit! Why was she doing this?! Why was she blatantly…b-blatantly…confessing what…what she wanted…?

She heard his nervous chuckle as he wrapped his other arm around her and lowered his head to kiss his new girlfriend.

Oh yeah…that was why…

She let herself give in and put her arms around his neck, closing her eyes and relishing the butterflies in her stomach. She felt his love and could only hope he felt hers too.

But unlike the times before, this was very short-lived. After they broke their kiss, Star noticed a figure behind Marco and yelped, shoving him backwards to the point where he was vertical on the couch. From there they both had a perfect vantage point to see who it was—although in their eyes it didn't even matter.

"Oh, uh, Mrs. Diaz!" There was no hiding the panic in her voice, or the red on her face. "I was just, it's not what it looks like!"

"Yeah," Marco agreed as he sat up and turned towards his mother. "See, Star was just…"

"I was helping him."

"Exactly! She was helping me out, because I was just wondering…"

"How to kiss a girl—"

"Yeah, yeah."

"—and so, I thought, since I'm a girl, you know?"

"Yeah, and she was helping learn how to kiss her."

"A girl. How to kiss a girl, not specifically me, is what he meant to say."

"Oh. Oh! Yeah, no, I made a mistake, I meant just any girl, not Star."

"Not _specifically_ me."

"I— Yeah. No, just any girl that is not specifically Star."

"Even though it can be me too."

"Yes. Exactly. So, that's just, that was what was happening…"

"A-And then, you walked in. We just sort of, well, were in the middle of that…lesson, and yeah, that-that's all that was happening."

"Just bad timing, Mom," Marco finished up.

Mrs. Diaz's initial sigh turned into a lighthearted laugh, which in a way was shocking and in every other way completely unexpected. But, honestly, who would ever expect someone to laugh after seeing that they had been hiding a relationship for weeks?

"Oh, now, you don't really think I never knew, do you?" his mother asked.

"…That…I'm helping him…?" Star said in one last attempt to _keep_ this hidden.

"I've known since day one, you two. Star, you never noticed the way Marco looks at you every time he sees you? And Marco, you never noticed Star smiling more around you than she ever has before?" she asked, looking at both of them in turn.

And, when put that way, it did seem a little obvious if you were looking for it… And Mrs. Diaz especially seemed to have keen observational skills. She always seemed to catch on to everything far quicker than anyone would think possible. So maybe it was true that mothers just knew…

It was Marco that asked the question both of them had been dying to know the answer to. "Are you going to tell Dad about this?"

His mother smiled warmly—and somewhat excitedly—and answered, "And risk splitting you two up? I don't think so. I like the idea of my son with someone so amazing."

"Awww. Thanks, both for the compliment and not letting Mr. Diaz find out."

"Do any of your friends know about this?"

Their turn to answer _her_ questions—how quickly the tables turned.

"I don't think so… Not unless they were spying on us," Star teased.

"You're not doing anything else, are you? No touching in inappropriate places or further?"

"Mom, no!" Marco replied.

Unlike Star, he knew what his mother meant by "further", and from his response "further" never happened anyway. She could only assume it meant sex. She just didn't know why Earth was so determined to use other words for it… Either way, no, they had never taken it that far.

"I have absolutely no problem with you two as a couple, but if you go too far in this, I'll have to tell your father, and we _all_ know what will happen if I tell your father," she warned.

"Thanks, Mom. We won't go too far," Marco promised.

"Yeah, thanks Mrs. Diaz."

Mrs. Diaz smiled again and walked over to hug them both.

"I was serious when I said I'm excited this finally happened," she chirped.

"So uh…how much did you see, exactly…?" Star questioned.

"Ohhhh, pretty much everything. I'm glad my Marco finally has a girlfriend, and to be honest, I'm glad it's you, Star," she answered.

Only Star caught on to the subtle new tone in the woman's voice as she spoke. Mrs. Diaz wanted her to stay… She wanted her to be with Marco but that couldn't happen. They both knew that. But, she supposed, it couldn't hurt to be happy about it for now. Everyone was certainly happy about it, aside from Mr. Diaz and their friends, but they also had no idea about anything regarding either of their love life. So as far as every else knew—excluding Mrs. Diaz of course—both Star and Marco were still single and still fair game. But secret or not, Marco was happy. Star was happy. Mrs. Diaz was happy. That was what counted.

Mrs. Diaz walked over to push Star and Marco together, as though trying to get them in the same position they were in before, then walked back outside to read the same magazine again, not too far from her husband, who was still focused on his hamburger patties rather than what Star and Marco were doing in the house…alone.

"This is a little weird," Marco said as they both pulled away from each other, the moment clearly ruined by his mother.

"Yeah," Star agreed. "If your mom is in the house but your dad isn't, does that mean we still act like a couple or do we act normal…? I'm sort of confused on what to do now."

"That's a good question… I guess we'll just find out when it happens?" He shrugged.

"Guess so. By the way, any girl except for me?"

"I had to say something, and you said not specifically you so I just went from there…"

"Well when it's not an excuse, I would hope it _is_ specifically me."

He reached out to grab a lock of her hair and fiddle with it. "I have a few girls in my life but you're the only one I would kiss."

"I think…I need a little proof," she said flirtatiously.

"Oh?"

He slid one hand over hers and leaned in for at least a quick kiss, but he never got it—Mr. Diaz came in when he was only halfway there, making both of them sigh in frustration as the _second_ moment was ruined just as much as the first.

"Kids!" Mr. Diaz announced. "I made some cheeseburgers for the whole family. Let's come eat now."

"Okay, Dad," Marco said, standing up and turning to his father just as the door closed again with Mr. Diaz slipping back outside.

Marco sighed yet again and looked over his shoulder at Star, who was getting ready to go outside for the burgers.

"I'm getting that kiss," he said with determination. "One way or another."

"And I'm getting that proof," she said as she walked past him towards the door. "One way or another."

 **A/N**

 **Sorry for the long, long, long, long wait... ;-; At first it was college holding me back, then life in general.**

 **Hoping deh Starco was worth the wait though. And yeah there was a lot of dialogue but I wanted to at least try to add some humor in.**

 **Thank you so much for all your encouraging reviews! :) They're ultimately what pushed me to finish up this chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

-Chapter 7-

It was another beautiful night—possibly, though, her last on Earth. Those dreams were getting worse each time as the pressure and stress grew, choking her like a starving python. An invisible, imaginary, metaphorical, but very much evil python… And if choking didn't properly describe it, then maybe the increase of gravity—again metaphorical and again evil—would. A strange, yet at this point very familiar, crushing sensation, as though some invisible anvil brought some friends and dogpiled her. Each day that passed was merely another anvil added.

So of course she would wake up from said dreams, middle of the night or not. Of course this one was no different.

Aside from the horrible feeling she had in the pit of her stomach… Somehow she just knew that tomorrow, she would have to say a quiet goodbye to this amazing place, and these amazing people. Perhaps it was because her birthday was tomorrow… She just didn't think she would be leaving _on_ her birthday. More like the day after. Maybe.

Just in case that feeling turned out to be right, she went to see Marco one last time. Yes she wanted to say goodbye to everyone. Yes she wanted to see everyone just once more. But she hardly had the time, and she wanted most to see Marco. She decided to make that a priority before her departure.

She got out of her bed and headed to Marco's room—something she wasn't allowed to do, especially at night, unless it was necessary. But this time, she felt that it was necessary. One last moment together, even if he was asleep for it, was all she needed. It would only be satisfactory. It wouldn't be fulfilling. She knew that. But…still…

She opened his door and, sure enough, he was asleep, his back turned to her and completely still aside from slow chest movements. It was so quiet she could even hear his breathing. It was so dark she could only see his silhouette, and barely make out other objects.

She slipped inside and closed the door. Suddenly the room seemed even darker than before—so dark that she was afraid she would trip on his bed if she wasn't careful. Thankfully he kept everything neat and tidy, all in its proper place. Dirty clothes were in the hamper, clean clothes were in the dresser, school supplies he'd bought for college were in the nightstand, and any other knickknacks he had were in their own designated places as well. She was almost positive that he had trained himself, somehow, to sleep as still as he could simply to keep his bed neat. But she did find herself grateful for all that cleanliness this time. Now she didn't have to worry about tripping on anything in the floor as she made her way over to his bed, relying on tactile senses and very little on vision to get her from point A to point B. And even then she only felt comfortable once she touched the edge of his bed.

She slid her hand over the covers until she reached the large lump that told her she'd found his body.

Sighing in relief, she slowly crawled on top of his bed and even more carefully moved near him, until she was hovering over him. It wasn't easy to do considering the only guide she had was one hand. Her vision was extremely nearsighted in this lighting…or lack thereof.

Her intention was never to wake him up, it was only to spend some time with him. And she was going to, just, while he was asleep so she wouldn't be found out later.

She sat down beside him. It wasn't much, just sitting there, but he was right beside her and in her eyes at least, that was all that mattered.

She heard a yawn as Marco shifted beside her and turned to the other side, slinging one arm around her legs and cuddling up against her waist. It made her blush and have fleeting thoughts of what it would be like to feel this every night.

…Well…not this in particular… Just the feeling of being held each night, in his arms, under his protection. Yes she could take care of herself but it helped tremendously having him around. For support if nothing else.

Marco pulled on her legs and she stiffened. It was like he was trying to cuddle a stuffed animal in his sleep, and she feared if she moved even in the slightest, he would wake up and the moment would be ruined. Plus it wasn't like she had taken into account that her legs would end up being held hostage and his head buried in her waist. She didn't exactly spend her nights watching Marco sleep. Had she known he really did move around more than she had assumed, she would've come up with some different plan. This was…clearly turning out to be a bad one.

But what else was new.

"Those are waffle nachos…" he mumbled into her. And then something about bacon; she couldn't quite comprehend what he said though.

Waffle nachos. Those actually sounded pretty good, but what exactly were waffle nachos? Did those really exist? Maybe they were just regular waffles shaped like triangles? Or were they nachos shaped like waffles? What if they were both? But then…how was that even possible? Maybe they were nachos made in a waffle iron…? Somehow? How would that work though? And would you put syrup or cheese on them? Or both? Of course waffle nachos could also just be dream food. She wondered for a moment what waffle nachos would taste like, but considering she didn't even know what they _were_ , it was impossible to even guess at it.

She gasped as she felt his head rise on her skin. Marco stiffened, but obviously his eyes had already fully adjusted to darkness and he was able to make out who she was before he screamed thinking she was an intruder.

"Star…?" he whispered.

She took a deep breath. "Yeah."

"Star, what are you doing in my bedr—" His voice cut short and he silently yelped, removing his arm from around her legs. "Star, did we, you know, di-did we do an—"

"Sex?" she interrupted.

He sat up and cleared his throat nervously. "Uh…yeah."

"You were sleeping," she answered. "Why? Did you dream about that?"

"What! No, of course I didn't. And…wait…um…wh-what are you doing here anyway?"

"Hm?"

"Well…you're in my bedroom, alone, at night, in nothing but a nightgown, and you're right beside me in my bed."

She blushed. "Oh. Well. I just thought that, you know, we could just spend a little time together."

"Time… It's the middle of the night, Star. What kind of time are you talking about?"

"Just um, alone time. Just the two of us together."

There was a pause for a few seconds.

"Oh. Oh, wow, so…oh. Um…y-you wanna get under the covers then or…?"

"I guess…"

She quietly slipped under the covers and he wrapped his arms around her to pull her closer. She didn't object. It was much less awkward than when he was gripping the lower half of her body. That was…weird. If they hadn't grown to be so comfortable around each other that would've sent her straight back to her bedroom.

"I-I have…absolutely no skill in this…" he said.

She held back a little giggle. Snuggling at night wasn't something either of them had done before, so she was equally as unskilled. Then again, her outgoing nature and deep preference for both physical contact and companionship could very easily lead anyone to believe she was a master at all forms of this kind of thing.

But then she found out what he _actually_ meant by "this".

"Marco?" she mumbled. "I don't mean _that_ kind of time."

He propped himself up on one elbow.

"Neither do I," he swore. "I was just…offering to keep you warm. I-It's cold. And, yeah, I'm warm, my bed is warm, this is… Everything is warm. Stuff. Stuff is…warm."

"Then one area is a little warmer than the rest."

"Warmer than the…" He cleared his throat again. "You and your wild imagi—"

"You're poking my butt," she told him.

Marco drew a sharp breath. "That's not me. That's, I, sort of, I keep a glow stick with me."

"Down there?"

"Absolutely. That's what you're feeli—"

She pressed herself into him and he grunted.

"Okay, okay, but come on, Star, what do you expect? There's a pretty girl in my bed wearing only her nightgown and it's the middle of the night."

"So?"

"So this is torture, it's like you set me up for this."

"I didn't mean to."

"Can you stop pressing yourself against me now? You're making it worse," he hissed.

"Then maybe you should go take care of that?" she "suggested" as she moved away from him. "I'm afraid I can't help you there."

He sighed and got out of bed, murmuring something about not expecting to wake up to this.

And honestly, she wasn't expecting to be in that position, or put him in that position either. In one way she felt bad about it. In another, she felt like it had never been her fault. All things considered, her plan was to keep him asleep. He just happened to roll over and moving would've woken him up. So either way, both of them would've spent some time together…just, awkward time…

"But it's still time…" she thought out loud.

Already she felt the clock tick away, even though Marco didn't even have a clock. Well, he did have a digital alarm clock on his nightstand but it had no light behind the screen. The one he used to have did have a light, but as it aged, the alarm began to fail more and more often, until finally the alarm itself either never went off or was so soft it couldn't wake him up. He got a new alarm clock to replace the old one, but this one provided no light for his room. Thankfully her eyes were adjusting at last and she could see much better than before.

She still couldn't make out the numbers on his clock, but her mind had somehow set an internal clock of its own. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock… She could see that internal clock with her mind's eye. And it was ringing too loud in her ears, imaginary or not. It was unbearable, and in an instant her desires swapped from just snuggling to getting as intimate as she could, because after tonight she just knew that tomorrow would be the day she'd been dreading for months. She wanted so badly to prove to him that she loved him enough to give him all of her, and even more so, she wanted to know that he reciprocated that and would give her all of him. But she couldn't… It wasn't just for her sake, but his too. It was like backhanding him—he would think she just used him and then left, wanting nothing more to do with him. That wasn't the case at all, but the last thing she wanted was to leave knowing he would think that.

…Did she just say "love" again…? Nope. Nopenopenope. Mistake. Just…a really strong crush. It was temporary. Fleeting. She would get over it sooner or later. He would too. He would find another girl eventually—for some reason she despised the very thought—and fall in _real_ love with her. They would get married and…settle down…have a family…grow old together…love each other forever… But. No. She could not be that girl. She could not feel love. Or…if by a rare, completely unheard of chance that she would fall in love with her new, currently unknown fiancé, then maybe this problem would simply take care of itself. Wait, _wait!_ What problem?! There was no problem! They would both end up happy! At least, Marco would, and that thought was enough to make her happy. So there. "Problem" solved.

She made it a resolve to spend the night with Marco and, before he woke up, return to Mewni on her own, without allowing a royal carriage to cart her back. Then the portal to Earth would close…for the last time.

 **A/N**

 **An update this soon is rare for me... Anyway I'm kinda in the zone here, so yup, quick update. But hey I have a surgery coming up in just 7 days and, well, who doesn't stress a little about that stuff, right? So updates to any and all stories will be slow and very delayed. :T Sorry guys. But, enjoy the Starco and hopefully humor, if you found any of that funny.**

 **Oh, and as you may have noticed, I did change the description _a lot_. I felt like the old one just...didn't really give much insight into the main plot. I wanted it to be more specific from the moment I decided to change what this story was originally going to be (boring). **

**And my last word, thank you for your kind reviews. :) They're very encouraging.**


	8. Chapter 8

-Chapter 8-

And the next day…the nightmare she had so been dreading had become the horrible, dark side of reality. Her leaving of Earth and returning to Mewni was fated to happen even without an arranged marriage because…well…what of her people? They needed a ruler. They needed the king and queen. Since she was their eventual successor, they needed _her_.

Royalty was viewed as perfect and easy, so carefree with everyone else doing chores and handling most situations for you. It was true that there were nursemaids, butlers, fine chefs, and the likes; it wasn't true that life was so easy and carefree. It was full of responsibilities that weighed heavily on her parents' shoulders—soon to be her shoulders as well once her fiancée's parents passed and the coronation ceremony was complete.

But she was getting ahead of herself. For now she would focus only on her wedding with someone she did not know or want or like. …Not that it mattered…

She took her dimensional scissors and, leaving behind all dresses and other belongings, tore a ragged hole between Mewni and Earth. And now all she had to do was…step through the hole.

"Just one step. One step. Earth's still right there…" She took a glance behind her at the deep gray of the rising sun, and listened carefully to make sure the entire Diaz family was asleep. Mr. Diaz certainly was… Mrs. Diaz and Marco, she couldn't tell. They were very silent sleepers.

She sighed. "Stop stalling…"

… "Go."

… "Go now. _One step_."

…

…

…

She lifted one leg and put it through the portal.

… "Gonna close soon…"

…

She pulled the rest of herself through it, turning around to face the last glimpse of Earth.

And that glimpse was all she needed to change her mind. She lurched forward, only to hit the ground as the portal pulled in on itself and closed in the blink of an eye. Just like that, she was trapped on Mewni. Marco was gone now. Everyone was gone now. And she had left them no way to open a portal of their own.

Funny… Before she was told about this forsaken marriage, she had envisioned her departure to be a pleasant one. She would take her dimensional scissors and all the Diaz's, all her friends, they would all come to see her off. And she would be free to travel back whenever she wanted. Or, whenever time allowed.

She picked herself up off the ground and tried to dust off all the dirt sticking to her dress. Marco had told her years ago that she could rule Mewni her way, no matter how destructive. That included getting dirty. At the time she believed that and it consoled her, but had come to realize anyway that "her way" was the wrong way. She would be a queen. And no matter what Marco—who didn't know a thing about royalty—said, she would have to be proper and dignified. She would have to strike a very royal tone. She would have to be perfect and…nothing like she had ever been before. Even those secret practices couldn't change her personality.

She took a quick glance at her dimensional scissors to assure herself that yes, she really had gone back. But it also reminded her that no, she didn't want to stay…

She quickly shook such thoughts out of her head. She was _royalty_. She was to be _married_. She was to be a _queen_. Of _two_ lands. Her people relied on her for their very lives… And…she couldn't let them down… They would be killed. Thagerie wasn't known for playing fair and their wars were typically ruthless ones, as though their only true goal was never domination or retaliation, but just to destroy everything. Any unlucky civilians caught in such a battlefield were as good as dead.

But a marriage… That was an alliance so strong Thagerie wouldn't dare attack Mewni. If there was one thing she _did_ know about Thagerie it was that they were loyal to their leaders. With a former princess from Mewni as their queen, no soldier would even think about a territorial invasion.

Sighing, she turned around to be "greeted" by the most admirable and impressive castle in the entire land in which she was to rule. She was right on the doorstep to entrapment.

She squeezed her scissors. It wasn't too late… She could just…cut a portal open…and go back to Earth… To the Diaz's… To her friends… To Marco…

She pinched herself and tried to pry her thoughts from Earth and anyone on it. It wasn't exactly a form of consolation, but she reminded herself that Earth had only ever meant to be training grounds. She hadn't been sent there for socialization, let alone seeing Earthlings as friends and family, or worse, falling in…temporary-love-that-would-never-last-anyway with her best friend. She had _known_ all of this would end and she had tried to prepare for it but…no matter what she did, it would leave a lasting impact.

She pinched herself harder—the more she thought about Earth, the more difficult it would be to control herself.

She took a deep breath and turned around to head towards the castle, passing her people and future subjects and taking quick glances around the marketplaces. The conditions in the lower classes of Mewni weren't the best… They weren't very sanitary, there was no money, many were homeless, the farms were too small to accommodate the number of cramped animals they somehow held, shady figures were always around each corner, there were few roads with pavement, and most homes were made of wood and hardened mud. Mewni _needed_ this marriage… She was seeing the proof with her own eyes.

The middle classes were hardly any better than the lower. The few differences were that the streets did have paving, the farms were bigger, most houses were wood and/or stone, it was slightly cleaner, and less people were homeless.

She continued marching forth and reached the upper classes. There she saw a _huge_ difference from the other two. The citizens took notice of her presence and bowed before her. The houses were bigger and sturdier, the cleanliness was top notch, and it was pretty much the flipside of the lower and middle classes.

She wanted to stop and tell them not to bow just because she was there, but she knew it would be wrong for the crowned princess to behave in such a manner. She was to keep walking without sparing a single moment for them. She would pay back their respect by making the general life of Mewni better through Thagerie's military and funds. And they knew it, too. Some of them had relieved smiles on their faces that told her they were all grateful for this marriage. The resolve that once wavered was now strengthened and she found herself very much able to bear the thought of being married to a stranger.

She heard the _clip-clop_ of two white stallions approaching her from the main street to her castle. Each carried a royal guard on their back.

"Your highness," one of them said.

Time for that secret training to pay off.

"What business have you with me?"

"The princess should not be walking by her lonesome in the streets."

She stared at him. "And should I not have a last look at my people before I depart?"

Even his stallion shifted in unease.

"O-Of course, my lady…but—"

"I am to be in my quarters right now," she interrupted. "You dare to lecture me about my travel home?"

"N-No," he stutters nervously. "My apologies, princess."

"You see I am unharmed. Return to my father immediately."

Both guards jerked the reins of their horses and left for the castle. It was true she didn't have the authority of a queen yet, but nobody was foolish enough to upset the princess, especially not now under the given circumstances. And she was safer than ever before due to this marriage—no one wanted their lives to be taken by Thagerie's ruthlessness. If they hurt the only solution to that problem, they would be facing the extreme wrath of two lands. Not one person would dare lay a finger on her with the stakes this high.

She kept going, knowing that stalling wasn't an option. The unfortunate part of the upper class of Mewni was that it was small. There weren't nearly as many people residing here as in the middle and lower classes. Considering how far she'd already come into it, it took her mere minutes to pass through completely.

And then, finally, that dreaded moment… She reached the castle, the heart of Mewni, her former sanctuary. Somehow it looked so much bigger than she remembered. It was taller, broader, and—

The guard she had ordered to return here was standing attentively beside the doors. His partner stood on the other side. In the moment they saw their princess approaching, they hastened to pull open the doors, obviously thinking they had upset her and weren't too eager to get on her bad side. She wasn't upset with them at all but sometimes it paid to sound that way.

They bowed to her as she passed them and once again, she kept her head held high and didn't say a single word. She didn't look back at them when she was inside and tried to pay no mind to the unmistakable sound of two heavy doors being pushed shut behind her.

"Ah, princess!" one of the castle maids greeted. "Shall we get you to your quarters?"

Star looked at her and silently nodded.

"Very well. Come now, come."

The maid began escorting her through many long hallways.

"The preparations haven't started yet, milady, but rest assured they will begin shortly," the maid said. "Are you ready?"

"I've come here for no other reason," she replied.

"My, you have grown so much! I remember when you were just a wee tyke. So different from all the other princess and princesses of the land. Even as a young lady you never did lose that adventurous spunk!" she giggled.

Being polite was one of the qualities expected of royalty but she didn't have any tolerance for this. She was already carrying a heavy enough burden on her shoulders; she was far from interested in listening to a recap of her childhood. But she chose to let the woman ramble on anyway—it would probably be the very last they would ever see of each other.

One simple flash of Marco, of Earth, of the life she already wished she could have back, caused her poised face to twist into a depressed frown. Princesses were supposed to hide their emotions but obviously this one still couldn't…

The maid opened a door for her. Her room had been refurnished since she left for Earth. Everything was white, red, or gold. A huge bed with a red bedspread, a plated mirror with jewels, a window with flowing white curtains, desk, chair, closet, this, that…

"Miss?"

She looked at the maid.

"Are you feeling well?"

She quickly nodded and forced a smile. "I will rest now."

"It's…morning, milady. There's still much to be done—"

"The hours are late on Earth. I've hardly slept before returning. You may go start the preparations for the wedding. Tell the king and queen that I would like to incorporate a few traditions from Earth," she said.

"Traditions…?"

"Yes. I will summon you when I wake. You may leave."

She sat on her bed as the door was gently shut, unsure whether to wallow about Mar—Earth, think about what exactly she _did_ want for the wedding, or to just go to sleep like she said she would. The latter didn't seem all that bad. Considering all the restless nights she'd had prior to coming back, she really was exhausted. And maybe it would take her mind off of everything.

 **A/N**

 **Sorry for the ridiculously long wait. I wanted to continue but my hands spent plenty of time hovering over the keyboard and nothing at all would come to my head…except ideas for future chapters that would cost me a confusing and extremely jarring time jump in this chapter. In other words, I got nuthin'.**

 **Then other fanfic ideas came to me and I had to focus on those so they could get worked out and I could get back to Nova. As you can see…this took quite some time. So much time, in fact, that I have to apologize for that. And I have to apologize for giving you this crap chapter even though you've waited so long and probably expected a lot more than just this.**

 **I'm already on the next chapter by the time you finish reading this! And! I plan to update much sooner in some feeble attempt to help make up for this…horrifyingly long wait.**

 **Originally I didn't plan to tell you this, but considering how I've treated this story in the past…ahem…year…I figure I should give you some future to look forward to. I have some surprises in this story and thanks to a review I got, I now have extra ideas and changed the plot a little.**

 **Furthermore I plan on either splitting this one story into two different ones using a huge time skip and an explanation with it, or make a sequel. Either way both are going to be the exact same—plot, idea, etc. It'll take place in the far future, which typically can screw up the original story, but my plan will have all the emotion and depth of this one (so it won't be one of those screw-ups). I'd like to hear your thoughts on whether it should be in this story (it is a continuation after all), or if it should be a sequel as a separate story.**


	9. Chapter 9

-Chapter 9-

"Aaaand if you would so kindly sit on this stool, your highness…"

The designer scooted a medium-sized wooden stool to her knees and she delicately sat down on it. She'd grown so used to being on Earth, having people treat her like she was one of _them_ , like she was no one too special and without everyone either too scared or too desperate to be her friend, that she didn't much appreciate the royal treatment she would otherwise have come to think of as right, and any other treatment wrong. She wanted to tell him that he could simply call her Star but…she wasn't allowed to do that.

She stared at her stoic face in the enormous mirror in front of her, then moved her eyes just slightly enough to see her dress designer's reflection. He didn't care to look in the mirror and was extremely focused on elaborate frills and lacing. Their length. Their placement. Their width. Their color. Their shape.

The only Earth traditions her parents had allowed for the wedding was a white dress—which seemed to be very taxing on the designer—and a wedding cake. Pastries usually weren't allowed since princes and princesses from the whole of Mewni, as well as a select few from the highest classes, came to bear witness to a marriage of such great importance. In a normal marriage among the commoners of Mewni, only family and perhaps a friend or two would attend. Even in normal royal weddings, other kingdoms and/or cities within the smaller portions of Mewni didn't see it as a very high priority. But this time even their lands, and the neighboring lands of Mewni, were at severe risk of invasion and senseless war. Thagerie was known far and wide and was feared by nearly all kingdoms and entire dimensions that happened to be smaller or weaker. Mewni was no exception.

"My, my, you're as thin as a drafel's back toes…" she heard him mumble under his breath.

Yes, well…anxiety was capable of appetite loss.

She wanted to respond, in one way or another, but instead pretended she hadn't heard a thing.

The designer wrapped a thin string of lace around her neck, almost choking her in the process. It soon went slack and he began sewing it into the collar of her dress.

"A white dress is…unusual," he said.

She would've nodded but being as there was a needle near her neck, that probably wasn't the best thing to do.

"I suppose I've been on Earth a long enough time to pick up some of their ways," she replied truthfully. "It would be a shame to have been there for years and come back with nothing."

"Ah! Indeed! And this is what these princesses wear in such a… _primitive_ dimension?"

"Earth is a very cultured place. There is no magic but there are still invisible forces at work. It has so many amazing things to offer. Oh! And if you ever hear about this one kind of food called 'Chinese food', you have _got_ to try it! And don't even get me started on nachos! We have a lot of good food on Mewni but nachos are my favorite food of all time in all dimensions…"

She intentionally let her voice trail off as she realized that she was by no means striking that royal impression. Furthermore she has shown her adoration for Earth, and she even got excited about it… And to make it worse, she had acted like that _in front of someone_.

He chuckled. "You're not like other princesses. I'm positive you'll make a wonderful bride, and maybe even influence Thagerie to…stop their invasions of our neighbors, and their neighbors, and even beyond that…" He sighed. "I'm not from Mewni. I was brought here as a refugee when my little village became a battlefield between Thagerie and Kovatch. I know this must be an enormous burden to carry but…thank you so much for finally preventing another war."

"It's for the good of Mewni, and I'm sure Kovatch is now being ruled by a Thagerian army. I'm sorry your village was caught in the crossfire… Rest assured you're not the only one. Thagerie is unforgiving to all lands."

The mention of a war with Kovatch was an immediate concern. Thagerie was getting restless now. Kovatch was a huge kingdom with ten times the strength of any ordinary kingdom. They were known for their hospitality and in turn, they became very respected. No one ever declared war on Kovatch… Even Thagerie must've suffered greatly, but in the end, there was no doubt Kovatch had lost.

If even Kovatch stood little chance against Thagerie, Mewni and its neighbors stood _no_ chance.

"How long was this war…?" she asked.

He took a deep breath and answered, "Years, princess… Eventually Kovatch was forced into surrender. Too many innocent people were dying."

So…Kovatch's strength never faded. Thagerie had used cheap tactics that she found low even for them. It was understandable—awful but understandable—why they would stoop to that level. All prior wars with Kovatch were either short or long-lasting with an insane amount of losses for the enemy. If the war with Thagerie became too drawn out, it was clear that both their militia rivaled the other—a matched strength, in other words. It was a war that was getting nowhere and entire companies no doubt fell on both sides. It was a violent stalemate. One of them would have to do something else to win or both would go down. Kovatch didn't have many allies, as they thought it unnecessary to drag other lands into a war they knew they would win, and Thagerie's "allies" were nothing more than conquered territories. Clearly no other lands dared to involve themselves in a battle between two superpowers.

But it didn't change the fact that Kovatch—the one kingdom except Thagerie that hadn't lost a war in hundreds of years—was brought to its knees. Why Thagerie attacked in the first place was a mystery, and a very unusual occurrence. Kovatch kept to itself and never tried to threaten or invade another land; it certainly would never have engaged Thagerie if not for that attack. So the only conclusion she could come to was fear. Thagerie didn't just use military to win wars—they would take down stronger and larger kingdoms to show off their might to all others even thinking of opposing them, and it damaged their spirits.

Being as she had returned to Mewni after four years on Earth, Thagerie's king and queen or advisors could've suspected she would call off the marriage altogether, because even at this moment she had the authority to do that. But by winning a war against Kovatch, they might've been sending her a message—if this didn't happen, _Mewni was next_.

"Do you think it could've been a show of force? Maybe they would attack part of Mewni…?" she asked him.

He wasn't well versed in war or military tactics, and seemed to know about Kovatch only because his home village had become part of their massive battlefields. He did know about this marriage and Mewni's treaty with Thageriebecause he'd been here long enough to be accepted as a designer for a royal wedding dress—the highest honor any designer could ever achieve.

"Mewni isn't strong enough to defeat Thagerie, everyone knows that. And Thagerie could attack on a whim. However…Mewni is best known for its agriculture. Thagerie has a huge army and many citizens, but the lands they invade have two problems: the larger lands have poor soil, and the lands that do have fertile soil are too small to support such a huge kingdom. Mewni is a rare exception. It's so big it needs separate families to govern separate parts on the edges. And the soil here is perfect for growing food to feed everyone here and the livestock and even then it _still_ has much to spare! So, even during the cold seasons when rations in other kingdoms would normally be low, Mewni can still thrive…agriculturally anyway."

"Indeed."

"Thagerie hesitated on simply attacking because if they did, most of the soil here would be torn up and ruined. And Mewni is a poor land, even if it is large… Thagerie would have absolutely no interest in it if it wasn't for the soil. At most they would use it like they used Kovatch—Kovatch never had very fertile soil and had a strong military so from what I can guess, they were only at war with them to as a show of force.

"To scare me into going through with this…" she muttered.

He paused for a fleeting moment before saying, "I'm afraid so, princess…"

She took a deep breath and he went back to work. The conversation revealed terrible news that her own parents never told her about. Her own parents! She was eighteen now and by tomorrow would be married, taken away, and would never see them or anyone else ever again, and they chose to hide this kind of news _this whole time?_ Thagerie would be under her rule and she had no idea of quite possibly the biggest war to ever exist.

She took a deep breath to remain perfectly calm despite the sudden shock of all this, especially how Kovatch didn't lose by military force… The sad part was that…the war with Kovatch lasted for years, which meant Thagerie _must_ have suffered heavy losses…but still not enough for her kingdom to defend itself… If only Thagerie had been weakened enough, this marriage wouldn't be forced on her.

"I'll make you look beautiful, princess," her designer assured.

For the next hour or so she sat perfectly still, only moving when he told her to. It was long and full of painful thoughts, but finally her dress was ready. It was dotted with small ribbons shaped like little hearts. A sewed-on white jewel adorned her chest while translucent lacing seemed to spread from it. Naturally the entire thing was puffed out.

"Is it…to your liking, princess?" he asked nervously.

She turned her body a little in the mirror and nodded.

The designer breathed a heavy sigh of relief and ushered her out of the room, back into the maze formed by the halls, so she could move on to measurements for her new crown. She wouldn't wear this crown forever—it was symbolic of a new, shared power and life, and her groom would have one identical to hers. It would only be worn during the wedding and then, after she was in Thagerie, she and her new husband would receive new crowns. Those crowns were the permanent ones. Unlike Earth, their coronation would be almost immediate—after the first year of marriage. At least…that was what she was told.

As she walked through the halls, she passed some bakers pushing a cart with a white cake on it. It looked like it would provide enough to go around at the wedding. Normally it would arouse a satisfied feeling, but she hadn't eaten anything recently and the thought and smell of such a sugary pastry only made her nauseous. She would have to eat something soon—the princess couldn't be sick on the day of her wedding.

Still…she didn't even like the thought of eating… She just felt too sick for that. And seeing that cake didn't help at all… Plus, she was wearing her wedding dress. It would be a shame if she messed it up by dropping food on it.

Once the baker was out of eyesight, she leaned against the nearest wall, closed her eyes, and held her head. It was probably from both the nausea and loss of appetite, but a sudden wave of lightheadedness came over her.

Of all days to start feeling horrible…

"You're just nervous," she mumbled to herself. "Just get your head measured and go…"

With a few more breaths, she managed to get off the wall and make it to the next room. A forger greeted her fondly and bowed.

"Such an honor meeting the peacemaker of our beloved kingdom," he said. "I'm sure you must be busy. This will only take a few minutes."

He whipped out a roll of measuring tape and began carefully wrapping it around her head, tightening it ever so slightly, as though he thought she was a very delicate ceramic doll and might break if even so much as tapped with a pencil. Feeling the smallest amount of pressure on her forehead tempted her to lean forward and rest her head on it. She could feel her stomach ice cold and wanting to growl, but thankfully it never did. Unfortunately, despite the luck of her stomach making no noises to indicate hunger, her head was feeling no better than it had before. She didn't want this to take only a few minutes. Yes, she was a bit on the busy side thanks to her earlier nap, but she wouldn't mind at all if this took hours.

"My lady, you look pale," the forger pointed out. "Are you feeling well?"

"Worry not. My mother always told me I would be nervous before my wedding."

He smiled softly. "Ah, I see. Don't be nervous, princess. I've heard your groom is a very kind young man."

She almost went into a rant about how her groom could possibly be kind if all his life he had grown up believing it was okay to scare and kill the innocent for no reason at all. But…she restrained herself. It wasn't her place to say any of that no matter how much she wanted to. And since Mewni would soon transfer from matriarchy to patriarchy, she wouldn't have as much say as she normally would.

"P-Princess Star…please forgive me but…you really don't look well. I'm not sure this is merely anxiety…"

Somehow she just knew he had a concerned look on his face. Whether it was concern for her or concern for the marriage, she didn't know. In her mind she wanted to assume it was for the marriage because at this point it felt like that was all she was good for. It was the only reason so many people respected her now. Forget about being a ruler, she was a heroine. It didn't feel like anybody actually cared about her anymore, just the wedding. Beyond that she was nothing right now. Or perhaps at this moment she could be dubbed a sacrifice minus the death portion.

"I'm fine," she sighed, despite double vision beginning to set in. It was only mild though, and she found it nothing to be too worried about. If she could simply rest for a bit then it would go away.

"Should I call a medical wizard, princess?" The concern was evident in his voice now.

It was in that instant that she knew she looked horrible and sickly. She didn't need any mirrors for her to see that. But any sort of wizard was a bit extreme. The wedding was in a few hours, she still had things to do, and she couldn't waste her time with an examination over nothing. Yes, she was hungry, very much so, but there was a simple cure for that called "food". She could eat later and all this would be solved.

"There is no need," she said, clearing her throat to sound more firm and in control of herself. "You may continue."

"Yes. Of course, princess."

It seemed— _seemed_ —to have worked, and his voice had hints of relief to it. It appeared she wasn't the only one who had a hard time hiding her emotions…

He was right when he said it wouldn't take long. Instead of minutes, it felt like seconds. After he announced he was done, she stood up and nearly fled the room before he could suspect that her body had hardly been able to keep up with her.

It was like back on Earth, when she would get sick from not eating. The difference was that back then she could rest whereas right here, right now, she couldn't afford to for the next several hours. If she could just tough it out until then, she would be golden. If not…she wasn't sure what would happen. She hadn't heard anything about Thagerie being understanding or patient, though to her knowledge they were only patient with Mewni because she hadn't been of marrying age.

She put one hand against the wall to steady herself and started walking slowly so her vision wouldn't get worse. Her dress and crown were both done. Her shoes were done. The cake was done. Unlike Earth, where weddings were carried out in chapels, Mewni's took place in what would appear to Earth as small colosseums. On Earth the father would give the bride away. Not one Mewni. Her groom would be waiting for her with unicorn. He would help her up on the unicorn and then get on himself, and carry them both up the aisle. And everything past that point, aside from the ring, was totally different from Earth.

The hardest part would be smiling and acting happy. But…it had to be done.

Lost in thought, she tripped and fell, catching herself by one knee to where it looked like she was kneeling. And as if that in itself wasn't bad enough, the bakers had forgotten to put red and white rose decorations on the cake and had decided to turn back around. Sure enough, this meant they would stumble across the _princess_ down on the floor.

The one in front abandoned the cake and cart and quickly ran to assist her, pulling her to her feet and wrapping her arm around his neck to steady her.

"My princess! Are you okay?!" he panicked.

She nodded her head. "I was only examining my shoes."

She was surprised at her own quick coverup but nevertheless grateful and proud of her brain's snappy decision.

She looked up at him and noticed that her eyesight had indeed gotten worse. She could still see past the double vision but she was more nearsighted now because of it, and the farther away something was, the more one image became two and one object would separate into two of the same objects. Even the cake and cart were beginning to multiply. She refused to quint even though the urge was strong—no one could know she wasn't feeling very good.

"We should have the sh—"

"No," she interrupted. "I'm fine, as are my shoes."

Then, realizing she could possibly trip again, she immediately added, "But I may check them again sometime."

"You're not well, princess," he said. "Please, let us call a wizard. I know you're busy but—"

"No. I'm well."

"Princess, please, I insist!"

"I'm perfectly fine."

"You can't even stand up without my support!"

She had a sudden awareness that most of her weight was on him. As much as she wanted to get off and balance on her own, the truth was, she just couldn't. If she did she would only fall again. If that happened there was absolutely no way she would be able to pass it off as "checking her shoes".

"Princess, you can sentence me later for this but you are not healthy," he said.

He looked over his shoulder at the three other bakers that had accompanied him.

"You three take that cake back and make sure you the petals right. I'll take the princess to her room."

She shook her head as the other three bakers carted the cake past her.

"Can you walk, princess?" he asked her.

She nodded her head and, with his help, shuffled forward. She only made it about halfway there before the dizziness became too much and overwhelmed her. Her knees buckled underneath her and had he not caught her in time, dizziness wouldn't have been the only thing she felt.

He changed her position and instead of having her lean against him, he picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to her room. She barely held back a groan from being swung around so much but couldn't have possibly been more thankful than when she felt him set her down on her bed. Once she heard her door close, she frowned in discomfort and kept her eyes shut, feeling an extreme rocking and spinning movement that logically she knew wasn't there. But it physically felt that way and felt real enough shake her certainty a bit.

They came in spells, with only brief intermissions. In a sense, it was torture. In another, it was…a bit fun, despite the weird feeling she had in her stomach and nausea. And in another, it provided the perfect way to both lose track of time and to pass it.

That distraction made it seem like only a minute or two before a few people came into her room. Rather than looking to see who it was, she pretended to have lost consciousness. And it was probably for the best. She didn't want to open her eyes to a swirling world right now, nor did she want to have to answer any questions. So instead she stayed motionless and simply listened in.

"Go on, then." The voice was her mother's, and she suspected that her father might be in her room too.

A third person approached her and before she knew it she felt a strange tingling sensation in her head, then in her neck, then it moved to her chest. The person grabbed her hand and pulled her arm out. The tingling sensation slowly ran up that arm and the person grunted. They put her arm back beside her and lifted up her other arm. Tingling. Another grunt. Then the tingling moved down to her stomach, where it intensified as though it was digging deeper. Another grunt. By now she had identified these grunts to be of a male voice.

The tingling—which by now she knew to be scans from a medical wizard—moved past her stomach and down to one leg. He pulled it out, the tingling sensation ran all the way down to her feet, and he grunted again. He pulled up the other leg and the sensation swept down to her foot again. Another grunt.

She felt him place a hand over her stomach. No more tingling but the odd feeling of imbalance she'd had before was still there. An outside physical disturbance messed everything up. His hand moved up to her heart, then her lungs. He started to hum in concern as he circulated through them, as if sensing a pattern of some sort.

"Well? What's wrong with her?" her mother asked.

The wizard sighed and took his hand off her.

"It's hard to say… She's very sick. She's malnourished, dehydrated, and I think this is affecting her breathing and heartbeat," he explained. "Her body just…couldn't take it anymore. But…your majesties…there is one more very important thing you should know about the young princess…"


	10. Chapter 10

-Chapter 10-

"She is already connected to another." He pressed two fingers against her forehead. "Aye, and he is not one of us. She's been bound to him by a powerful force. It was inevitable that their pact would be sealed before her return. Currently he carries her in his heart everywhere he goes. And in return she carries his essence."

"Carries _what_ , old wizard?" her father bitterly asked.

He put a hand back on her stomach and hummed again.

"Aye…she is heavy with child."

His hand slid off.

"How dare you tell such lies! If this was true her stomach would be huge! Just look at how thin she is!"

"King Butterfly, this would in fact be true. However in her case, she has clearly not been eating or drinking as she should have been. It leaves the princess small, and weak."

"Then the baby would have died! Star cannot be pregnant!"

"I would desperately hope she's been secretly meeting her groom. Thagerie would never stand for this."

"River, calm down," her mother said. "Don't wake her. With or without a baby she's still unwell. We must think rationally."

Her father huffed but managed to quiet down.

"Old wizard, tell us, with her body so weak, why does this baby still live?" she asked.

The wizard took a deep breath and said, "I can't say for sure. Perhaps it's just luck. But she is without a doubt _very_ heavy. I assume it was someone from Earth who put life in her womb. So perhaps…earthlings are stronger than us. If this is the case then, aye, she may birth well."

"Who did this to my little girl…" her father growled furiously. "I'll have his head for thi—!"

He was abruptly cut off by a small slapping sound, like someone put a hand over his mouth.

"Gas her," her mother bluntly said. "Two weeks."

The other two gasped.

"But! My queen!"

"No baby could live through a poison that deadly."

"Yes but what if it's too much for her? She's already sick enough, what if she can't handle this? She could die!" her father objected.

"She _will_ die if she keeps this baby, River. This is the only choice we have; for our daughter, for our kingdom… There's no guarantee she'll live through this but there _is_ a guarantee Thagerie will kill her if they find out. This is the only chance we have to save her life."

There was an eerie and grim silence for several minutes. It was almost unbearable, and the countless thoughts and emotions whirling around inside her were a nightmare to handle… She wasn't able to focus on any one thing. She couldn't sort out her problems.

"But…my dear…" her father murmured.

"Don't you want to take the only chance we have while it's still there…?"

Her father took an extremely deep, slow breath and said, "Gas her."

She felt the horror still radiating from the wizard but as all three left her room at once, the feeling disappeared.

Her eyes burst open and she shot upright. No amount of dizziness could hope to outmatch the news she should've known the entire time. She'd contributed every single pregnancy symptom to anxiety over the wedding. But now the vomiting—which she had originally thought to be a bit extreme but still assumed it was due to stress—and lightheadedness made sense. And if the wizard was right about how far along she was, if she was " _very_ heavy" with child, then her constant refusal to eat would keep her from showing. It was all so perfectly aligned that…even she had no idea.

She took a sharp inhale as she also realized the only logical explanation as to why the baby lived through all the continuous damage her body was suffering was because she wasn't carrying an ordinary baby. A mewman baby probably would've died no matter how healthy she kept herself, but human babies were _much_ stronger and were capable of living through some pretty harsh conditions.

They both promised never to speak of it again, and she didn't even like thinking about it, but the very last high school party she went too, she begged Marco to tag along and pretty much dragged him to it. Both of them had a good time, danced to upbeat music, socialized with other classmates, and by then so many people wanted them to stop being so dense and spiked their drinks when they weren't looking. Marco didn't have a very high tolerance for alcohol and started to get overly friendly with her once he finished his drink. Peer pressure was what pushed her to drink even more alcohol, which became fun when people started chanting her name. Even Marco joined in, though it was clear he barely had a clue what was going on and was having another one himself. But in time her mind got fuzzy, as did her memories. The last thing she remembered about that party was passionately kissing Marco in front of everyone while they cheered. And she'd vowed never to go to another party because the morning after, she woke up next to Marco in her bed and immediately realized they'd slept with each other that night. Ever since then they both agreed to never speak or think of it again and had done well in pretending it never happened.

But now she didn't know what would happen. Never before had there been a half mewman/half human child. And she didn't want it to die but if it lived she didn't know what she would do or how it would turn out. And having a baby live, for a mewman, was a huge deal and rarely ever happened. She wanted to keep it but Thagerie would never tolerate it. Adoption on Mewni wasn't like on Earth, and it was off limits in royalty. Even her "kind groom" wouldn't stand for it.

Her lungs suddenly jerked and something inside told her to stop breathing. She did but she knew she would have to breathe again soon.

She hopped off her bed, most of the dizziness already gone from a decent rest period, and ran over to the door knowing the gas was leaking into her room. She tried to open it but the doorknob wouldn't turn—it was locked shut, most likely on her parents' orders. So instead she tried kicking at it, seeing if it would at least crack. If she could crack it, she could break it. If she could break it, she could get out. Whatever happened after that…she wouldn't know until after—this assuming it did—it happened. But when kicking didn't seem to do anything, she used a stronger force of throwing herself against the door like she'd seen football players do. All that did was hurt _her_ , not the door…

Moving around only made her want to breathe more. Seeing a pinkish fog surround her feet, though, was even more worrisome and she took a few steps back. She wasn't sure what was worse: seeing the gas or knowing it was there but not seeing it. She couldn't avoid it for long. Soon it would fill up her entire room and—

And right now the gas hadn't reached the top… That was her safe spot for now.

She tried to distract herself from the growing pain in her lungs and fiddled with the back of her dress only to find that there were no zippers or buttons. It was rather untraditional but…she solved the dilemma by simply ripping open a large hole and pulled her wings through. They used to be too small to be very helpful but as she aged they grew larger and larger. They weren't on par with her mother's yet but they were still perfectly capable of flight.

She let them carry her to a top corner, where she hovered above the gas's reach. She sucked in a huge breath of clean air and nervously watched the pink fog spread over her entire floor, slowly creeping up and over her bed and furniture as it continued to rise higher and higher. She pulled her knees up, not wanting to so much as touch it, even though it hadn't yet reached her.

Looking around, scanning the ceiling, did nothing to calm her or give her any hope. Then again, there wasn't any hope to give. She already knew she was too weak to make it through two weeks of poison. But even if she got out and survived, the baby would stay and she would still be killed. Both were death sentences, and all because she stupidly went to a party and made some wrong choices there.

She caught a whiff of the gas and knew her time was up. She fluttered down and forced herself to keep breathing even though her lungs were trying to reject the toxic air. It was worse than holding her breath. It wasn't burning or pain, more like an intense gravitational pull that made her chest want to fall off her body.

She walked over to the door an tried the knob again, as though perhaps something had changed, but as expected, it still stuck. Nothing happened, nothing changed, no one walked by… It was just a guess but maybe they cleared the halls and rooms near her bedroom to spare the staff from the poison. Nobody would be foolish enough to come through knowing other people wouldn't step in to get them out. She imagined they would only use tiny portals that she couldn't fit through to regularly bring her food and drinks. Things that would keep her alive, but only just. Earth had "abortions", which, considering the baby died in those, was an idea she abhorred, but Mewni didn't have that because if a mewman did get pregnant, it was the most blessed thing in the world to have the baby survive. The only way to hurt a baby on Mewni was to hurt the mother carrying it. This gas was extremely deadly but took time to work, so essentially they would _almost_ kill her, which meant that even if she did manage to survive as weak as she already was, the baby wouldn't make it. This was…this was Mewni's first and hopefully only abortion.

And like the wizard said, it wasn't just hers, this was Marco's too. As if losing him forever wasn't bad enough…

"The blood moon. The pact being sealed. Connected to each other," she grumbled.

She looked at her stomach.

"And what are you?" she asked. "The 'force'? The 'seal'? The 'connection'? Or are you just some extra thing inside me that nobody wants?"

She saw her reflection in the corner of her eyes and glanced at it. Her mirror. _Her mirror_. She could call her mother and clear up this mess and maybe be let go. Just. She had to pretend to be oblivious to the pregnancy factor at first, and surprised upon being told why she was being poisoned by a gas normally used to carry out a type of death sentence. Then maybe her parents would take pity on her confusion and allow her to get out of the fumes.

She ran over to her mirror and said, "Call Mom."

"Calling 'Mom'," the mirror replied.

It rang for a moment and her mother's face appeared on the screen. Frankly she didn't know whether to be furious or elated, or possibly both.

"Mom! My door is locked and there's this gas leak in my room," she 'explained' with as much innocence in her voice as she could muster.

"Yes," her mother said. "As the princess of Mewni _already engaged_ to a prince of one of the most powerful kingdoms in the entire dimension…!" Her mother took a quick breath to calm herself. "Star, what in the world provoked you to carry a child of _human_ origin?"

"I…I swear I didn't know I was carrying anything with me! But there was once that, I-I didn't know what I was doing a-and it was only one time—"

"How many times do you think it takes, Star? Ten? Twenty? A hundred?"

"Why are you killing me for this?!"

"We have no intention of killing you. It's the baby that has to go. And if enough poison gets in your system then your body will have no choice but to send it straight to the baby too. You're strong enough to survive this. No baby has a chance against it."

"Mom, please, just… C-Can't you let me have the baby and then find a new home for it?"

"One reason is because we have no idea how much longer you'll have the baby in you. Another reason is that this baby is human, and we wouldn't know how to properly care for human children. And lastly, you have to marry as quickly as you can. This wedding _has_ to take place. We don't know—"

"Wait, wait! Humans."

"What about them?"

"No, Mom, _humans_. This is a _human_ baby, like you said. I…I did stuff on Earth, with a human. And apparently…this happened… But I know who the father is. What if I give birth, then give it to the father? He'll know how to take care of a human baby."

"You yourself didn't even know you were pregnant, why would he?"

She paused for a minute. "Well, obviously, I would have to tell him. I could…explain the situation. And then—"

"And then what? What if he doesn't want it?"

"Ummmm…well…I guess…"

"Who will take care of the baby if he won't?"

"Well, uh, humans aren't like us. They adopt other peoples' babies all the time and they love them and treat them like their own babies."

"And what will you do in the mean time? I know you well enough to know you'll want to stay a part of the baby's life but you know you can't. Star. You've already lost so much. I know this must be so frustrating for you, and I wish things were different… I want you to be happy but if this baby stays on Earth and grows up there, you'll only ever be feeling another separation. And it would be even worse for you when you have your next child, Thagerie's heir. Always wondering what happened to the child you gave up and always wondering what it would be like for both of them to grow up together…"

"Mom…no… Please, just, let me keep it, let me give it to the father, I-I won't say a word…let me at least try…"

Her mother looked away and shook her head. "This can't happen, Star. I'm sorry. The sooner we get rid of the baby, the sooner the wedding can commence, and the sooner Mewni will be saved. We don't have the luxury of taking another risk with this baby. If this was the child of the prince things would be different but you chose a human instead. As unfortunate as it is, these are the consequences you must pay."

The mirror cut off. The call had ended. She lowered her wings in defeat stared with wide eyes at all the facts laid out before her. Clearly her parents had discussed this more thoroughly after they'd left her room because this wasn't part of what she'd heard, and while it was true that no one knew how much longer it would be before she would give birth, or how much time it would take to recover from it, she could try giving it to Marco. She could explain everything to him and hope he understood. But…even she didn't know if the Safe Kid was ready to raise a child. She'd never even asked him if he wanted children in the future.

But she did know he could cure the child of Earth illnesses. He was well organized and always seemed to know what to do far before she did. He wasn't a scatterbrain like her. He was born and raised on Earth. He was probably more fit to raise a human baby than she was…

She thought about calling Marco, since her mirror service did extend to other dimensions, but second guessed it. What would she tell him? Bring up that drunk one-night stand neither of them felt comfortable talking about? That he had a baby he never knew about, and now they were trying to kill it? That she knew for years that she would be married but accepted him anyway? That she knew she would hurt him but was selfish? That she was weak and would die soon—probably within a few short days? She couldn't talk to him… She had nothing to say…

"So I guess…you'll never know your parents…or grandparents…from either side of the family…" she murmured. "Maybe you can meet them sometime in the afterlife. Don't worry. I'll be right beside you."

She turned around and slumped against the wall, wondering which was worse—dying here or living the life of an offering. She loved her kingdom and her people, and she was loyal to them, but if she had never been sent to Earth none of this would've happened. She wouldn't have anything to feel sorry about and she would be healthy and guaranteed a real future, one that lasted longer than a few days.

 **A/N**

 **It's SUPER rare for me to update this quickly and the only reason I did is because I'm having a bit of a phobia crisis... I have a surgery on Thursday and um...well it was sort of sprung up on me. So the next update will be really delayed due to two reasons: I'm running out of nerve here and it takes time to recover from surgery, during which I will not be working on any chapters.**

 **You guys are hysterical. XD The moment I mentioned her stomach, automatically she MUST be pregnant. Never once in the entire story (before now of course) did I say she slept with Marco. In fact I dropped like what, four lines or so trying to suggest that she did not sleep with anyone in the time frame of the story. You weren't wrong but I even showed that to my friend and we were both rolling! X'D I guess I kinda asked for that though. But in all honesty, THANK YOU. I've been nervous over the surgery and those reviews just, they were so funny! I would look at them several times and crack up! So seriously, I'm really grateful for something to calm my nerves (or tickle them in this case).**

 **Happy Easter!**


	11. Chapter 11

-Chapter 11-

Days dragged on and she lost count after the third day. She was right to assume that she would be brought food and drinks through small portals. At first she ate and drank as much as she could, to at least _try_ to live. But no results were being shown from it. The strength the wizard had spoken of—or rather, the _lack_ of strength he spoke of—was still spiraling downhill. She herself found it a completely unexpected miracle that she could move. Neither her mother or father had contacted her since she last spoke through the mirror. And no matter how many times she tried calling them again, no one ever answered. It only left her feeling alone and sicker than she'd ever been before.

Well…she wasn't entirely alone, but it still wasn't the same. She was just barely starting to show, which proved that the wizard's claims were not only true, but that she could give birth to a live baby—or "birth well", as he'd put it—if the gas was ineffective. She didn't know if it affected a half human baby, born or unborn, but she did know that it had been used for centuries to kill mewmans. The baby was definitely stronger than a normal one but it was still half mewman. Chances were, it would outlive her if independent from her. But the chances of it actually surviving these toxic fumes was slim to none, even if independent…

Most of her time was spent asleep, which meant that, yes, sooner or later she wouldn't wake up. But then what? What if she died now? What would happen to Mewni without the wedding to maintain peace? If she died…would Mewni die too?

She balanced herself with a wide stance and a hand against the wall, beside her mirror. It was all she could do to continue trying to contact her parents, or anyone who graced her with an answer.

"Call Mom," she coughed.

"Calling 'Mom'," the mirror replied, for what had to be the millionth time.

For the next two minutes it rang, the dots practically hypnotizing her. But, as usual, it cut off.

She hung her head and looked towards her door again. It was hardly worth a shot but…

She trudged over to it anyway threw as much of her weight as possible on it. Still nothing. Of course. She honestly just wanted to give up and give in, because it seemed so pointless to keep fighting a battle she knew she couldn't win, but for some reason she felt the need to. Maybe it was because for the first time ever, yesterday she felt something move inside her—an actual, physical feeling. It could've been her imagination because she hadn't felt anything since, but what if it wasn't? What if this gas was only deadly to mewmans and humans weren't fazed by it? That would be a serious blow to the gut. Suffering for no reason. Vile.

She leaned her back against the door and pushed back with her legs. Nothing, still. It felt like trying to move an entire cliff side now. She would need the power of a supernatural to get this door to budge, and it made her _really_ hate doors.

It was depressing too. Her entire room a prison cell and her past haunting her in all the worst ways. The life of a commoner didn't seem so bad. Her longing for Earth only grew stronger by the second, and this time not even because Marco was there. She wanted _out_. She wanted to _go_. Earth had a tolerance for this and showed a sympathy she'd never seen displayed in Mewni. If she had more time she was sure her parents would let her go back to have the baby and then give it to someone else, even if it did mean she would never see it again. But at least neither of them would _die_ because a few anonymous classmates decided to spike her drink. And yes she did continue to drink after that but everyone did! It was practically a tradition to do stupid things on Earth. But their parents didn't kill them for it. Reprimand, yes, and punish, yes, but nothing remotely similar to what her parents were doing.

And worse, if that moment yesterday was in fact the baby moving and not in her imagination—everyone knew this gas could mess with their senses—then her parents' plan was failing and she couldn't tell them because they never answered whenever she tried to call them. She wouldn't last too much longer. They were running out of time. It was best to cancel the gas plan and simply _let her have the baby first_. Yes, it would take an indefinite amount of time but at least she would live. At least the baby would live. At least she could get married. Saving Mewni was the sole reason for any of this, yet the only plan they could come up with was to risk her life by confining her to a death room all in _hopes_ that _maybe_ the baby would die if she was in bad enough condition.

And if they would simply answer her calls, they would see she was getting progressively worse. Maybe then it would hit them—she'd been too weak from the beginning to endure a gas this toxic for a time this long. Maybe their plan was to check up on her a few more days or so and ignore her up to that point. She didn't know what they were thinking anymore.

She sighed and flopped to the floor, still feeling an urge to fight off the poison—somehow—but at the same time feeling like a hopeless mess. It was hard to describe the way the two normally conflicting feelings harmonized so perfectly within her.

She took a deep breath, inhaling the heavy fumes with a force that would normally suck in about three times as much air, and was immediately thrown into a coughing fit. Just another sign, she supposed.

Almost as if in reaction to the violent heaving, the movement she felt yesterday repeated itself, a mixture of something inside rubbing against her and pushing. It wasn't in her head, that had to be the baby— _alive_. Finally moving around to tell her that yes, it was still there, and it wasn't going down that easily.

She stood back up and threw herself against the door again, finally on the verge of tears after days of endurance, able to expect nothing but death from the inside out. Two lives this time, instead of just one. That made an escape all the more important, although by now that movement from the baby could've been the discomfort that always came prior to death… Rolling around, begging for mercy from its mother who was supposed to be protecting and sheltering it. The child of some Earth boy, one who wasn't even a prince. And she wanted to do something, she wanted to save it no matter who the father was. At the very least it was _hers_ , and at the very least it had _her_ bloodline. Right now she was responsible for whatever happened to it.

She threw herself against the door again—she was either going to save herself, and the baby, or literally die trying.

But then she realized that throwing herself against the door was like throwing herself against a rock. It was useless. And her moving around, consuming all this energy, was shortening her life little by little. She gave up on the door and walked back over to her mirror.

"Call Mom," she instructed it.

"Calling 'Mom'," it replied.

Each ring only dampened her spirits more. It was bad enough enough that they would just leave her to die here, but keep her completely isolated as well…? Why? Where was the logic in that?

"Call Mom," she said when the ringing cut off.

"Calling 'Mom'."

She coughed and rested her head against the wall as her mirror continued to ring. She tried flapping her wings again—not to fly, but to push the air back—but the pink fog in her room only swirled around before calmly settling back down. She folded her wings against her back and sighed heavily as the ringing of her mirror stopped yet again.

"You're causing so much trouble for me…" she sniffled. "I could've been in Thagerie by now, I could've been preventing a huge war. Then you showed up. I mean you're dying anyway, why are you taking me down with you?"

She flopped onto her bed and growled at the whole situation, knowing that without her Mewni would probably go to a war they couldn't win, and that thanks to her poor choices on Earth, she ended up in this no-win scenario. She could blame the baby all she wanted but that didn't make her any less at fault. And no child should have to die because of her mistakes…

 **A/N**

 **I did say it would be delayed... Anyway this was all I could squeeze out, sorry. I guess you could say it's pretty much just a useless chapter but it's better than nothing. I guess...?**

 **OH RIGHT. Okay. So. For two years reviews and PMs have STILL been coming in asking if I'll ever update A Rose Without Petals, and if so, when will I do it. I'm like...really shocked at that. Even you guys following this story, or Sixth Sense, or Whispering Lies; everyone's been begging me to update ARWP. And I've had a few that did mention Whispering Lies too. Anyway I am very pleased to announce that as of this very moment I am working on the next chapter of ARWP aaaaand as a little something extra, the next chapter of WL. Nova will be slow due to this.**


	12. Chapter 12

-Chapter 12-

This time it had to be a full week that had passed by. "Decline" did _not_ cover this. She couldn't comprehend anything anymore, her vision was blurred to extremes, and even if she could move, she'd lost the will to. It was as if life hardly mattered anymore. And the baby? It had stopped moving, making one part of her—the one that held any hope—think it was simply her imagination, and the other part—the one that _actually_ paid attention to reality—think it had died. It was difficult to tell with mewmans… When human babies died in the womb, the mother still gave birth but not to a fully developed or living baby. But because that happened so often to mewmans, the mother's body absorbed the baby, saving energy and resources. It was gross to humans, which was why she'd never brought it up to them, but on Mewni, that was just how things worked and it was considered normal. So if the baby had died she wouldn't know for sure until maybe a month or two later, depending on how far along she was.

But in this poison… The baby might be human, sure, but it was also still half mewman. And it used to move, almost like it might've been reacting to the poison, but now it didn't. And she was already on death's doorstep. She had given herself maybe one more day _maximum_ before she finally gave in. If by lucky chance the baby wasn't dead yet, it would be soon. She wanted to apologize for not being able to fight longer, for practically killing it herself, but her body grew too exhausted.

She'd tried her best to stay near the mirror at all times, still attempting to contact her parents, and only leaving to eat and drink—one thing they made sure of was that she _always_ had something to eat and drink. Clearly they wanted her to gain weight. They wanted her to be strong enough to survive this. But…she wasn't…and she had no way of telling them that. At first she hoped that after seeing she was no longer trying to contact them, they would wonder what happened and check on her, but then she realized that she'd been trying so hard all the time that they probably assumed she'd simply given up on trying. If the roles were reversed, she would be thinking the same thing…

And no sooner than that last thought passed, a light flickered on followed by a small breeze, like someone was opening a door. She highly doubted it though. It hadn't been two weeks yet, that much she knew. Her parents wouldn't allow entrance until the gas had been cleared first—and it was _not_ clear. If anything it had thickened, increasing its toxicity. But her parents knew that would happen. Probably why they shortened it to two weeks instead of the normal three or four it would take to kill someone.

She lay still on her back, wondering if maybe this "light" was the one she was headed towards. But then a dark, grayish, fuzzy silhouette appeared and got closer, like it was bending down. When it spoke, she couldn't understand it. It was like listening to someone while underwater.

She felt something push on her shoulder several times and heard more mumbling. It was saying what she _assumed_ to be something similar to, "Can you hear me?" But beyond that, she really couldn't make out anything else. The only thing she could think of was that her parents sent someone to…check on her? Help clear out the gas? See if the baby was dead yet? Something… She didn't really know.

The silhouette sat her up and held her chest and back to keep her up. It started talking again, and when she shut her eyes to try to sleep, it violently shook her and started yelling a bunch of whatevers. So maybe it was someone like…

…Like an angry Thagerian… Hopefully not a single individual of Thagerie had discovered any of this mess. But why not… She was literally sacrificing everything but still couldn't win. And since she would be killed either way, it was probably best if she didn't die by the hands of her own family. Maybe it was better if Thagerie killed her instead. All of Mewni would hate Thagerie rather than the king and queen.

The person positioned her legs and picked her up bridal style. It moved and in mere minutes she felt the blast of clean, non-poisonous air. It wasn't thick and didn't weigh down her lungs. With each breath she took less of the toxic fumes inhabited her lungs, replaced by pure, precious oxygen—a hundred times lighter and a million times more refreshing than what she'd been nearly suffocating in for the past week. And the wind felt so wonderful against her skin, like it was blowing off all the gas residue.

But she had to remind herself that this pleasure wasn't freedom. It felt good for now but...later the clean air would be tainted with the scent of blood.

But…after a few minutes she had to wonder why she wasn't feeling the familiar rocking of a carriage or even the bumping of a horse. She was being delivered on foot and looking around, there were no other fuzzy, dark people to welcome or accompany the one carrying her. Thagerians were brutes but they were loyal to each other and always traveled in packs. So this…this just didn't make much sense. If by chance it wasn't a Thagerian, then who was it? Who was stupid enough to disrupt the only hope left to secure Mewni's future? Only citizens of Mewni, Thagerie, neighboring kingdoms, and trade partners knew about this wedding. And _none of them_ wanted to stop it. To have no princess would invoke an outrage and a definite war. So honestly…who was trying to steal the one hope Mewni and possibly its neighbors had left? Who was trying to sabotage one of the most important events to go down in history?!

It could…potentially be Kovatch… As a way to bring peace to their own land once more, it was possible that they had plans to hold her hostage. Marrying the princess of Mewni would still fulfill the contract, therefore keeping Mewni safe, but by holding her hostage, Kovatch could demand Thagerie to leave their kingdom in return for their future queen. It was an excellent strategy, actually… Thagerie would be put in a difficult situation—either release Kovatch and get Star back, or conquer Mewni and ruin the soil they sought. They would most likely withdraw their forces from Kovatch to get Mewni's land through her. Peace would be restored to Kovatch and secured for Mewni. All three kingdoms would get what they wanted. It was perfect.

And with Kovatch being under the control of Thagerie now, they knew about the wedding—they were perfectly capable of doing something about it. So with a strategy like that, not only did they have no wish to harm her, but Kovatch could still transfer her back after ransom was paid.

But Kovatch was the nice kingdom. They were the respectable "good guys" and only lost their war with Thagerie by succumbing to cheap tactics. Were they truly willing to take _any_ risk whatsoever of killing off another kingdom—and in doing so making their deal void—to take back their own? As far as she knew, Kovatch didn't rely on military strength alone. They were also skilled in espionage and infiltration, which they may have been rusty in during the war. But it was possible that they had snuck out to infiltrate Mewni and kidnap the princess. It would be foolish of anyone to try to infiltrate Thagerie and furthermore, kidnap the prince—especially since the prince was healthy. She was by far an easier target.

So maybe they would do something like this, maybe they had no other option. But although she despised what Thagerie had done, and although she wished Kovatch could be free again, she wasn't willing to risk her kingdom's destruction, no matter how unlikely it was.

She also had to remember that at this point, she was just an item. She had no choice in the matter. If Kovatch wanted to steal her then they could and she had no way of fighting back or bargaining.

So yeah maybe their intentions weren't bad at all but still… Why couldn't things just go smoothly? JUST FOR ONCE?! That didn't sound like too much to ask!

She was shaken from her thoughts when whoever this was dumped her on the ground, as though in a haste. Another thing she noticed was that her vision, hearing, and strength were all starting to return, slowly but surely. She still couldn't make out who exactly this was, but there was definitely no armor on him. He was standing above her with something in his hands. It was only when he tore open what was undoubtedly a portal did she realize those were dimensional scissors. Her family had dimensional scissors but…the colors he sported didn't match that of her family or servants… Red shirt. Dark pants. Thagerie and Kovatch didn't have these colors either, unless she was uninformed about something.

She immediately thought of Marco but then remembered that she had left him no way to get to Mewni. So it was definitely an unwanted reminder but it still begged to question who this was, what dimension he came from, where he was taking her, and why he would _dare_ to so much as touch her.

"Return me," she rasped.

Hearing her own voice sounded strange, almost foreign, after such a long silence.

"I am," he replied.

Now that she was able to comprehend his words, hearing his voice also sounded strange. Strange but…in the slightest of ways, familiar…

"Who are you?"

"Your rescuer."

"I am Princess Star Butterfly, crowned princess of Mewni, and I am to be married."

"Oh, gee, yeah, thanks for that little _notice!_ " he growled.

"How dare you speak to your princess that way!"

"Hah! Well _excuse me_ , your _highness_."

"I demand that you take me back at once!" she shouted as he lifted her up again.

She fought back the urge to resist him, knowing that she was still too weak. She was out of the gas, yes, but she still had poison throughout her entire body. Whoever this person was, she would personally see to it—assuming her parents didn't first—that he would go straight to the guillotine. She didn't want anyone to die but it was far more important to have this wedding go on, and any interruptions could not be deemed acceptable. If she had to kill one person to spare the rest of her whole kingdom, then so be it.

"You're interfering with a royal wedding!" she snapped as he jumped through the portal.

"And gladly doing so," he returned.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?!"

"Saving your life, unless you want me to take you back to Mewni so your precious groom can marry a corpse."

Well…when he put it like that… Maybe she wouldn't sentence him to death… But definitely a dungeon. Not Thagerie's dungeon though. She'd heard many a tale about their prisoners…and all were abominable. Death was _mercy_ compared to their dungeons…

She blinked several times trying to get a clearer view of his face.

"Where have you taken me?"

"What, did you already forget Earth? The thing you _said_ you love?"

Earth…? But why, and who…and…noooo that wasn't possible, that was _not possible_.

"M…Marco…?"

"No. The tooth fairy. We're going home, Star, whether you like it or not."

"Marco…" she breathed, more to herself than him. "How did you…?"

"Doesn't matter. All you need to know is that I am _not_ sitting back while you die."

…He was another dream-Marco. The dream just happened to feel real, or maybe the gas was just getting to her and making her even _worse_ than she already was.

It wasn't easy but she bucked out of his arms and managed to stand by herself, her vision finally clearing completely with the movement. She began looking around for anything that might be her mirror—it was usually the portal out of these dreams, realistic or not. She tried to ignore dream-Marco to focus on that task.

She looked at walls, the ground, rooftops, the sky, bushes and trees, doors… But each one was a nope. Everywhere she looked, nothing at all seemed off—nothing was a different color or even a different shade of a color, nothing was doubled or out of shape, everything was exactly how she remembered it. This was in fact Echo Creek. Nothing had changed.

She followed a confused dream-Marco to his house, still having no luck searching for anything different from everything else.

But walking through that door, something just screamed "reality", and dream-Marco became real-life Marco. The real thing, Marco, in the flesh, real… But how had he gotten into Mewni and more so her castle and then going even _further_ on the matter, her room? All that toxic air—

…Might not affect humans. Maybe to her it was deadly but maybe to him it wasn't anything. Then again, he wasn't there very long. So maybe it did affect humans, and he simply wasn't exposed long enough for the gas to work. That sounded like the more realistic answer to her.

"So mind telling me why you had _everyone_ worried sick?"

She looked at him, slightly in a daze over everything that had happened—and everything that _hadn't_ happened—and replied, "I didn't mean to."

He stopped midway up the stairs and turned around. There was something way beyond fury in his eyes. It was what she had been trying to avoid for three years…

"You ' _didn't mean to_ '? You left all of a sudden without telling anyone, you didn't even leave a note! We send out a search party thinking you're in trouble. We have no idea what happened to you or where you are. Then I think, maybe you went back to Mewni. But that can't be it because you said you were going to college. So maybe Star broke another police car and ran off again. That would explain why the search party can't find her. Day after day I think of all the things that might have happened to her and get more and more worried even though my mom keeps saying not to. I get frustrated with myself because if anything bad happened, why wasn't I there to protect her? And then…Pony Head drops by. I'm wondering what she's doing in my house, and if it has anything to do with Star. Then my prayers are answered in _the_ worst way. Pony Head is here thinking Star would be here one more day before the wedding. 'What wedding?' I ask. And whadya know, it's _Star's_ wedding. By some lucky little chance, Pony Head got the dates confused, and that's why she's at my house."

"Marco—"

"Of course, I don't believe one word she says because Star never mentioned anything about a wedding, especially not her _own_ wedding. And the Star I know would never keep _that_ a secret. But apparently, this confuses Pony Head. She agrees to take me to Mewni, and I still think she's lying about it all. But when I get into Star's castle I wonder where all the guards and maids are, and what this putrid, pink, fog stuff is that covers the entire floor. I look in room after room and they're all empty and that's really weird. And then one room is locked. I roundhouse the knob off and this extra thick pink stuff blasts me like a gas explosion. And right after that this girl is passed out in front of her mirror—wearing a white dress."

"Marc—"

"I walk over to her and it just so happens to be Star. Her eyes are open but she isn't responsive. I assume the pink fog is actually poison gas. I pick her up and sneak her out of the castle _praying_ I'm not too late. I realize I'm not too late when she starts talking. I'm pretty relieved until she orders me to take her back so she can _die_."

"I—"

"And that isn't the best part! Pony Head wasn't lying after all! She doesn't _just_ want to kill herself, she also wants to get married! And now she stands right in front of me, perfectly fine, telling me she never meant to make anyone worry."

"I-I'm…I'm sorry…" was all she could manage.

He probably wouldn't think it, but she was being sincere when she said that.

"Sorry? That's it?! Star, you abandoned Earth, your friends, my family, and me. You left without warning to get married. You were half dead when I found you. And you still wanted to go back anyway. Did I leave anything out?"

She opened her mouth to speak but was abruptly cut off as Marco added to what he said.

"And what was I this whole time? Was I a toy to you, did you just use me?"

"No!"

"Then why did you ever let me kiss you?! Why didn't you stop it?! Why did you keep telling me you loved me when you loved someone else?!"

"Wait, I d—"

"No! No, you know what, I don't even want to hear it, Star!" he snapped. "And you should probably go to your room and rest!"

"But—"

"No!"

"Marco—"

"I said no!"

"I'M PREGNANT!" she shouted.

He immediately paled, but just as quickly looked down at her stomach in confusion.

First thing's first, she had to explain it to him, then explain why it never looked that way, and then finally tell him about the gas. Hopefully that would lead to him listening to her as she told him about what was really going on with that marriage…and that she would never in her wildest dreams use him.

"I-I might still be, anyway…th-the poison could've—" No, no, probably best if she started from the beginning. "Y-You remember the last high school party we went to? I made you come with me?"

"Let's not speak of that—"

"And…we kind of…had sex that night, even though we didn't mean to or know that would happen… I started eating less and less around the time I _normally_ would've gotten bigger and started showing, but I was too nervous and I couldn't eat so I stayed skinny—"

"You were pregnant...and _didn't tell me_ ," he interrupted. "And if I'm the father, don't you think I at least deserve to know that much?!"

She bit her lip, knowing that while she didn't know before she left, she did still have a lot of time to tell him through her mirror…and she chose not to. She should've, even if it wouldn't have mattered anyway, because yes, he did deserve to know. It was his baby too… And…looking back…it was awful that she never told him.

He took a deep breath and tried to blink away tears.

"Is there anything else, Star, that I need to know?" he choked out.

This seemed like the perfect chance to tell him everything, but at this point he wouldn't accept any of her "excuses". He was already furious with her. Making him think she might be lying would make it worse… Maybe it would be better if she let him calm down enough to hear her out. If he understood what had really happened, maybe he wouldn't be as hurt as he was right now.

"No," she mumbled.

"Then go rest…"

She nodded and moved past him up the stairway and into her room, closing the door so he could have some space.

She sat on her bed and nervously fiddled with her thumbs, trying to think of how she would feel if the roles were reversed. If he was the princess and she was the Earth boy. But…she couldn't. She only knew her pain, her experiences, not his… She wasn't the one who sent out a search party, she wasn't the one who had no idea where he was and if he was okay, she wasn't the one who…well, who did any of what he did. And yes, she had gone through her own share of pain but so did he.

She could've done several things to change this outcome… Tell him about the marriage. Stopped the kiss. Tell him it had only been an "in the moment" kind of thing. _Not_ told him she loved him. Left a note explaining what happened. Called him with her mirror. She had so many opportunities.

She saw her wand sitting on her dresser, doing nothing but collecting dust. Then she looked down at herself, still wearing the white wedding dress that had been harder on the designer than it should've been.

She decided to change out of the stupid wedding dress and into a nightgown. It wasn't nighttime but Marco was right—she needed to rest. She was also positive that her dress had soaked in a lot of that gas, and having it cling to her was dangerous. It wasn't anywhere near enough to kill her but she did still have enough poison in her system to wear her out. She didn't need to keep inhaling more. Besides…it was a _wedding_ dress. It would be cruel to wear it in front of Marco, despite him having already seen her in it. No need to make him see it twice, to remind him that his _girlfriend_ who said she _loved him_ tried to abandon him so she could "run off" with a stranger. That had to hurt on a number of levels...

She heard his door slam shut and knew that she had finally exited one rough patch in her life only to enter another, this time with Marco seeing her as a sort of antagonist.


End file.
